I still call the place where I haven't lived in 40 yrs "back home." If you're lucky, you have a place that is indelibly imprinted in every part of your being, no matter how far away you have wandered from it. I've spent time wondering what it would be like if I stayed. I made several decisions to return but never did. But I do recognize how much that area had to do with my early formation and how easy it is to slip into talking as if I never left.
Now that I'm getting close to the BIG GOING HOME experience, I've been thinking of how much of this world I would really miss. Perhaps it's something like not appreciating something until it's gone. I'd rather think that it's a culmination of all things or maybe my denouement. I am earthly. I like water, dirt, trees, rocks, sky and just about every other part of the creation. I even like the world of man - parts of anyway. I loved to ski and ride motorcycle, to go to good restaurants and bad bars, to go to midnight mass and to stock car races, to go on road trips and to sleep in the back yard; I loved to go to the mountains and to the sea, to shop in small towns and find places to buy real cider; I loved doing most anything with friends and how relatives became even more important as time went on, to cook a favorite meal and to watch a favorite TV show, and so much more.
You can guess then that the idea of getting heavenly as heaven is usually thought doesn't appeal to me very much. I like it here just find - even with all that one has to put up to do so. But I can imagine taking away the wars, the politics, the poverty, the disease, the hate, the ignorance, the greed, the pain, the disasters and the like. For me, it would be heaven on earth. So I'm negotiating for a cabin in the woods howbeit a twenty-room cabin by a lake. If more is offered, a speedway would be nice with Danica Patrick to race against and perhaps a bar like "Sloppy Joe's" where I could talk with Ernest Hemingway about why he committed suicide. I wouldn't want more because that would be overdoing.
Streets of gold are not for me. Give me a good old pre-Walmart home town USA with a 5&10, a diner, a one screen movie theater, a place to buy art supplies, a pool hall, a hardware and of course an auto parts store along with all the noted features that make up a good life. Or just about any town in the Twilight Zone series where the main character was tired of the way it was and wanted to return to what they knew growing up. So I guess I better add a carousel and a bandstand that are in a park with a really interesting water fountain.
Going home can take on many imaginations. Everyone can remember the nostalgic longing and increased anticipation of nearing home after being away for a while, especially when there was the chance of never seeing it again. But if the next life isn't exactly as I would like it, I rather doubt if I'm going to ask if there is anything else available. Those with confirmed reservations are likely to get the best locations. I'm prepared not to be one of the elect, but it would be really great if I was seen as an also ran. I'd like to think I earned it by making God laugh. ....At least a couple of times.
