Memories? Confused in a strange environment? An idea that maybe doesn’t quite match reality anymore?
All this and many other things came to mind when I was asked about the question. Where is your homeland? How is it there? How come you left?
I believe, however, that the word home in me, who for over 40 years of my own free will, have lived far from my ancestral home abroad, triggers different feelings than with someone who has lived their whole life in the same environment that is familiar to him.
My memories consist mainly and in a great number of my early youth, of first life experiences at school age, life in family and urban community, of special kinds of events, such as the transformation of the city over the years I grew up in, my time in the Swiss Army.
The wanderlust that I felt in my early youth may have its deeper reason here and probably unconsciously encouraged the later decision to move to foreign countries ( 6 in all) and get to know other ways of life and languages.
Even in the distance, one constantly carries innate feelings and memories of original life experiences with you. Even more so.
In addition, almost reflexively and instinctively, one looks for familiar things in a strange environment. One is always happy about corresponding discoveries and catches oneself thinking: Oh, it looks almost like in my home country; or: Oh, that sounds so familiar, and more similar comments like that.
Far away, the idea occupied me always more than when I lived at home, I suppose one takes the surroundings and the way of life at home for granted.
While I was away I was mainly concerned with one question, the question of change at home over time.
From my own life experience, the homeland was initially the first hoard of life in the context of family and acquaintances, and then there was another area of habitat to think about, the Canton of Aargau, and finally Switzerland as a whole.
At the end of the day, home was always present to me in my daily imagination and thoughts while I was away, and now it’s the other way around, the United States of America, my home for over 40 years, is in my thoughts and memories.
Stay well, safe, and happy!👍
Your Blogging Friend Ulrich
