There's No Place Like Home

Since my email address is my only address, the closest thing to home for me is sitting at my computer. This magic box, somewhat like Dorothy's ruby slippers, allows me to return to the land of my birth with a single click. A connection to which I am still very much attached; even as I, like Dorothy, wander in the merry old land of OZ, encountering familiar situations in strange and wondrous surroundings and familiar people who happen to speak different languages and dress in foreign attire.

As a child I clearly remember discovering that the town I lived in was not infinite - all you had to do was drive a little further than I was accustom to and the town ended. Amazingly, here was land without buildings! With this first discovery that not every where looked the same, I became fascinated with the idea of expanding my vision and seeing what else was out there. The 50 some years between this discovery and the abandonment of my physical home to become a wanderer was merely a period of preparation for my present odyssey in search of home.

So as I sit here dripping with the heat of July in a tiny and decaying Istanbul apartment with almost no personal belongs save my ruby slippers - a shiny Mac - and as I listen to street vendors hawking simit, fasuyle, scrape metal, second hand objects, an old man in a long coat and skull cap slowly strolling down the street singing a Turkish song, the clip-clop of a horse as the fruit monger's wagon goes by, and seagulls screaming at each other; I'm sure I've once again passed the city limits and am not even in Kansas anymore.

Beginning with the simple idea of expanding my awareness of physical space, I've been led to seek other realms of expansion. For instance, I am inexplicably and overwhelmingly drawn to ancient archaeological sites, with some the desire to  experiencing a time outside the present. But my first real taste of life without borders came with my first solo trip to Germany. This experience was a revelation, without the emotional baggage of a traveling companion connecting me to my normal life, the experience of another land is not merely a backdrop or a stage set in a movie - two people eating dinner talking about their daily lives in Denver with a Paris street scene as backdrop - you can become more engaged in the culture and inhabit the world you are in.

But the biggest leap is stepping outside of myself; and, as it can take place anywhere, I daily pursuit it everywhere. In every increasing circles, imagining myself to be the big bang, I relentless move further towards home.