You probably already have images floating across your mind, having read my title above. "Home" means so much. It pulls at our heart, stirs our body, and teases all kinds of thoughts in our heads.
How could "home" not move us so completely? It was one of the first words we learned as children. And it was the place we wanted to come to after we had been away for a spell -- a week, a day, an afternoon, after school (?)! Unless your home had been swamped in sickness and/or neglect and violence, as the homes of too many children have been. But unless that was your experience, "home" was the place where you came to for safety, support, understanding, love, and something else -- something mysteriously satisfying and meaningful on a level that challenges words to describe it.
By the way, even if your home might have been a painful place, it is altogether likely that in your mind "home" still resonates as a place of refuge and meaning. Maybe even more so!
Because "home" is not just a place on a map, not just a place with a zip code, a place defined by geography. Oh, no! "Home" is a place in your mind -- or better yet -- a place in your soul.
For example, take the song recorded in 1957 by Patty Page, "Old Cape Cod." You remember the lyrics?
If you're fond of sand dunes and salty air
Quaint little villages here and there
You're sure to fall in love with old Cape Cod
That Old Cape Cod.
If you like the taste of a lobster stew
Served by a window with an ocean view
You're sure to fall in love with old Cape Cod.
Winding roads that seem to beckon you
Miles of green beneath an ocean view
Church bells chimin' on a Sunday morn
Remind you of the town where you were born.
If you spend an evening, you'll want to stay
Watching the moonlight on Cape Cod Bay
You're sure to fall in love with old Cape Cod.
You're sure to fall in love,
You're sure to fall in love
With old Cape Cod.
(Lyrics and music by C. Rothrock, M. Yakus, A. Jeffrey, 1957)
Now the interesting thing about Patty Page's best-selling record of "Old Cape Cod" is this. She had never visited the Cape until after her recording became a big hit. So she visited the place described in those memorable lyrics. And this is how she described her visit to the Cape: "I could not believe it when I finally did go, because I realized that [the song] had captured something about a place that I had had within me for so many years, but never knew. It's unexplainable to me, because it's so dear to me -- I knew I had been there before [although] I hadn't." (Cape Cod Times, February 27, 2010)
We can understand that, can't we? We find ourselves in some place we have never been, but there is a deja vu! We just seem to know we have been there before. Or it might be that we meet someone, supposedly a stranger, but we feel for sure that we have known that person at some other time!
In other words, something deep within Patty Page resonated with both the words she was singing as well as the actual scenes she experienced when she visited the Cape. There is something in us that is "soulful." Something "deep" calls to "deep." And when we do not allow ourselves to experience it, we become disgruntled, frustrated, manic or depressed, even sick in body and/or mind, or very susceptible to possibly dangerous distractions.
I have observed this over the years when I visited Cape Cod. The weekends have become almost unbearable with traffic now -- people arriving, people leaving. So many people! And why? Of course, we could say they come for a vacation, the food, the beaches, the tourist attractions. There is all of that for the throngs of people filling the highways, streets, shops, and trails.
But there is something more. They lyrics of the song "Old Cape Cod" describe something much deeper than the sentimentality and nostalgia this song can conjure up. Down under that level of feelings, we know we are connecting with the most precious thing of all, what our soul yearns for, what it is to be human -- a place called "home."
Remember the movie, E.T.? E.T., the extra terrestrial wants to phone home; actually he wants to return home. It is a brilliant drama of the alien creature who, like each of us, wants to return home. And we found ourselves in the movie wanting so much for E.T. to be able to return to his home. We identify because each of us is E.T. The experience is archetypal, universal and probably transcends borders of race, culture, species, and extraterrestrial beings.
We feel the stirring of our hearts, the yearnings, and the thought of ways we might attempt to satisfy those yearnings. After all, that is why God gave us summers -- so that we might go "home" even if for a little while!
How could "home" not move us so completely? It was one of the first words we learned as children. And it was the place we wanted to come to after we had been away for a spell -- a week, a day, an afternoon, after school (?)! Unless your home had been swamped in sickness and/or neglect and violence, as the homes of too many children have been. But unless that was your experience, "home" was the place where you came to for safety, support, understanding, love, and something else -- something mysteriously satisfying and meaningful on a level that challenges words to describe it.
By the way, even if your home might have been a painful place, it is altogether likely that in your mind "home" still resonates as a place of refuge and meaning. Maybe even more so!
Because "home" is not just a place on a map, not just a place with a zip code, a place defined by geography. Oh, no! "Home" is a place in your mind -- or better yet -- a place in your soul.
For example, take the song recorded in 1957 by Patty Page, "Old Cape Cod." You remember the lyrics?
If you're fond of sand dunes and salty air
Quaint little villages here and there
You're sure to fall in love with old Cape Cod
That Old Cape Cod.
If you like the taste of a lobster stew
Served by a window with an ocean view
You're sure to fall in love with old Cape Cod.
Winding roads that seem to beckon you
Miles of green beneath an ocean view
Church bells chimin' on a Sunday morn
Remind you of the town where you were born.
If you spend an evening, you'll want to stay
Watching the moonlight on Cape Cod Bay
You're sure to fall in love with old Cape Cod.
You're sure to fall in love,
You're sure to fall in love
With old Cape Cod.
(Lyrics and music by C. Rothrock, M. Yakus, A. Jeffrey, 1957)
Now the interesting thing about Patty Page's best-selling record of "Old Cape Cod" is this. She had never visited the Cape until after her recording became a big hit. So she visited the place described in those memorable lyrics. And this is how she described her visit to the Cape: "I could not believe it when I finally did go, because I realized that [the song] had captured something about a place that I had had within me for so many years, but never knew. It's unexplainable to me, because it's so dear to me -- I knew I had been there before [although] I hadn't." (Cape Cod Times, February 27, 2010)
We can understand that, can't we? We find ourselves in some place we have never been, but there is a deja vu! We just seem to know we have been there before. Or it might be that we meet someone, supposedly a stranger, but we feel for sure that we have known that person at some other time!
In other words, something deep within Patty Page resonated with both the words she was singing as well as the actual scenes she experienced when she visited the Cape. There is something in us that is "soulful." Something "deep" calls to "deep." And when we do not allow ourselves to experience it, we become disgruntled, frustrated, manic or depressed, even sick in body and/or mind, or very susceptible to possibly dangerous distractions.
I have observed this over the years when I visited Cape Cod. The weekends have become almost unbearable with traffic now -- people arriving, people leaving. So many people! And why? Of course, we could say they come for a vacation, the food, the beaches, the tourist attractions. There is all of that for the throngs of people filling the highways, streets, shops, and trails.
But there is something more. They lyrics of the song "Old Cape Cod" describe something much deeper than the sentimentality and nostalgia this song can conjure up. Down under that level of feelings, we know we are connecting with the most precious thing of all, what our soul yearns for, what it is to be human -- a place called "home."
Remember the movie, E.T.? E.T., the extra terrestrial wants to phone home; actually he wants to return home. It is a brilliant drama of the alien creature who, like each of us, wants to return home. And we found ourselves in the movie wanting so much for E.T. to be able to return to his home. We identify because each of us is E.T. The experience is archetypal, universal and probably transcends borders of race, culture, species, and extraterrestrial beings.
We feel the stirring of our hearts, the yearnings, and the thought of ways we might attempt to satisfy those yearnings. After all, that is why God gave us summers -- so that we might go "home" even if for a little while!
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