Faithful readers have read that I’ve embarked on a piece about home. It’s the art assignment at W242 this month. (Lately, it’s occurred to me that I could write about subjects that interest other people. “I” and “me” have their limitations in scope.) As I was prewriting, I got overwhelmed by all the ideas and angles, gazillions of images. So, I decided to look up “home” in the American Heritage Dictionary. “Home” can be used as a noun, adjective, adverb and transitive and intransitive verb. There were ten definitions under noun alone. And, the idiom list wasn’t shabby either. If you’re ever bored, look up “home”. Definitions four and seven are my favorite:
“4. a. an environment offering security and happiness
b. a valued place regarded as a refuge or place of origin….
7. the place where something is discovered, founded, developed or promoted; source”
Now, I’m intrigued with the last couple books of the Odyssey when Odysseus finally comes home (and the three lines that reverses everything), Sappho’s Fragment 16, the Psalmist references to God as home in 90 and 119 (I think), the Logos and I AM (God as verb). Home is a verb? Our hearts are restless until they rest in thee? Jesus: home comes to you? Ah, the connection between the tangible and eternal sneaks it way in. And, I’m reading Balthasar’s Prayer, which celebrates messy and complex. Yippy, yie, yay.
