Do you remember the time when you moved into the home where you first learned to lie? How 'bout the time where you felt the most alien? Yeah, there're a lot of people who grew up moving from place to place wondering . . . where is it that I truly belong?
And then there're those who grew up in the same place they were born and . . . still didn't feel at home. That's a problem for us European space invaders. Yet we somehow have made this--for lack of a better word--"place" where we live so alien that even the aboriginal folk don't feel truly at home. (Or maybe they do and they just can't figure out how to get rid of all these uninvited guests.)Makes ya think . . . don't it? Who are those who feel the most at home? The ones who've been lied to often enough that truth is just repetition? Hmm. If you're born and raised somewhere, is that by default, "home"? The natives don't think that, do they? In fact, I have to admit that I'm impressed with the fact that they can live some place for generations.
What makes this fact so impressive to me is that "natives" claim to have been born of the earth from their "here". It's just that I don't have such ties to a place having been born near here and having grown up all across the globe. But there's no denying that there's a certain something about this here. I'm deeply and truly in love with this . . . here. Almost as much as I'm in love with my . . . significant other.
Here is Port Angeles, Washington. And here is where I wish to stay as long as I can. Where else affords me the endless beauty and nonsense free lifestyle I enjoy so much? Oh don't get me wrong, this ain't no Pleasantville! This just lil' ol' Puerto de Angeles. It's the biggest little town I've ever lived in!Still, the concept of "native" bothers me. What is it that makes one "native"? Time in place? So, first come first serve on the title? Europeans AND Asians have been through so many conquerings and assimilations that being of a particular "culture" comes with caveats. Sorry to say, the natives in North America came here from afar via a land bridge or other means. So, how does that make them "native"?
I'll tell you what's native to me, being from Earth! Last I checked, this planet was spherical, no corners to be found. Were're of THIS place, this here. Yet, we speak many different languages, are governed my many forms of government, believe in a multitude of different religions or none at all, etc. All the same, we are earthlings.Wonder how long it will be before we figure all that out. Wonder when we'll be able to . . . finally . . . feel . . . at home?
