Boomerangs

Myth is the public dream, and dream is the private myth. - Joseph Campbell
The myth is "home is where the heart is." The reality may or may not be that case. Home may be dictated by circumstance rather than actual choices of the heart. But we are happier if heart and living situation are in concert. People are like boomerangs in that we tend to want to come home at some point.
The boomerang is built to come home automatically. Properly hurled out into the air, it whirls and whirls in a circular journey with an inevitable destination. It lands back where its trip first began, when the energy of the hurler's throw has been fully expended.
The Boomerang Kid is an adult child who repeatedly comes back home to live with his/her parents. Whether or not this is a good thing depends upon with whom you talk. Some parents are very happy to have their children as near them as possible. Others feel guilty that they have not been able to get their adult kids permanently launched.
Most of us who take trips will take the boomerang's path--away to the new place, then circling back towards "home" when our traveling energy has been spent. We say we are "ready to come home," in normal conversational inquiries. We long for our own beds, our familiar surroundings.
At the end of the day it is bittersweet to return home from a special trip. We feel exhausted and refreshed all at the same time. It is tiring to travel, even if "on vacation," because it takes energy to adjust to the changes necessitated by travel. Even positive change requires an adjustment. But travel can also be very refreshing. We gain new perspectives, we have fresh visions, good new memories, interesting experiences. We are no longer captives of our perhaps mundane in-a-rut habits of home. The trick is to make use of the vacation to renew our old lives in the ruts of automatic attitudes and behaviors, towards new refreshed ways of being.
Boomerangs cannot choose where they land. The laws of physics dictate that outcome. But people are much more able to choose non-automatic behavior. We often have much more choice than we realize about how we feel and act around the idea of "being at home."
Tags: travel home state
My topical post today at South by Southwest is about little blogs.