It’s only taken the better part of 4 years, but I’m fianlly here. It’s more of a feeling, I know, than anything. I’ve been here for 4 years. But I had this feeling once before: a couple of weeks after I moved here one of the fellow residents of the boarding house, Jacob, took me to play pool at Vincent’s Ear, a pub downtown (sadly, no longer there). So I spent the night playing pool, drinking beer, sharing cigarettes with strangers, and listening to odd stories about people who had more body jewellery on their person than I had in my jewellery box at home. I ended up working with one of those drunk, pieced, pool-playing people in tech support. And for a couple of days, as a result fo that, I felt like I had “arrived”.
Then the feeling went away - stolen mostly by a third shift job and the total lack of a social life.
It came back today, surprisingly. The “Day in the Life” pictures are being exhibited at the local public library. I have no idea if any of mine are even on display, but suddenly it feels like I live here again.
Another thing contibuting to this is a sense of “need a home life”. Brodie specifically stated he wanted to see what I look like in my environs. That caused the sudden realisation that I don’t have any so I set out to get some. The reality is that I’m closer to (mentally) living in SF now than I was at the end of my stay there, but Asheville is like SF’s little sister (worst taste in clothes, but more hippie and less trashy). So feeling “SF-ward” is feeling pretty “A’ville-domestic” as well.
A sense of place. open. present. here. now.
Cool post. Is there more than a simple thematic similarity to your post about Just trying to get home…?
I never did understand why you were so intent on exploring the Western Rite, but this makes sense to me.
Mmm. You picked up on a parallel I’d not yet figured out. Yes, you’re right - even the WR issues.
I’d make a connexion, too, with an earlier post on “growing a soul“: Roots being needed for that.