Moving around without losing your roots

[cubiczirconia]

blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/10/moving_around_without_losing_your_roots.html

Excerpt:

Yet home need not always be a place. It can be a territory, a relationship, a craft, a way of expression. Home is an experience of belonging, a feeling of being whole and known, sometimes too close for comfort. It's those attachments that liberate us more than they constrain. As the expression suggests, home is where we are from ? the place where we begin to be.

Rather than learning to live away from home or do without one, global leaders must learn to live in and between two homes ? a local and a global home. Become familiar with local and global communities, and use neither to escape the other.

This takes physical and emotional presence. It requires staying put long enough and traveling a fair amount. Spending time with those who live nearby and staying close to those who are far away ? showing and being shown around. Leaving a piece of heart with people and places, and keeping them in your heart wherever you are.

Hard as it may be to reconcile local and global homes, it is a privilege to have a chance to inhabit both. A privilege that we must extend to others. That is, ultimately, the work of global leaders ? connecting those homes within and around them.

We must embrace the struggle to make a home that feels our own. The unease that goes with it is a reminder of how important that work is, and what is at stake. Without a local home we lose our roots, without a global home we lose our reach.

Your thoughts?

 

[qwerty]

I could never live overseas. The US is where its at for me.  I dont even really understand the point he is trying to make.

 

[cubiczirconia]

I could never live overseas. The US is where its at for me.  I dont even really understand the point he is trying to make.

It's a big article qwerty (I love typing your name! couldn't be easier!) I just pasted things that appealed me.
I moved across the world a day after my last semester exam, and never felt at home at any place that I lived in. Four white walls were four white walls, I never put a picture up for several years even though the houses were tastefully decorated. But the idea of home changed over time, and it's only recently that I have made peace with the fact that this is home, and this where memories will be made.. Would really love to know what other immigrants think, are they at home, or do they still miss home? What is their idea of home apart from three-car garages and beige stucco boxes?

Can I live overseas now? May be not. I don't have the drive to uproot the family and go to a different country, or move back to my own land. A couple of years ago that wasn't the case, but as much as I don't fit into the Irvine idealism, I am home in Irvine. I wouldn't even move to the other coast unless necessary!

 

[socal78]

I'm a native American (hehe) but for what it's worth, even for me, I think NOTHING ever really feels like "home" once you move out of your parent's house. My childhood home was "home". The rest of the homes since then have only felt like a place to keep the rain off my head even though I try to make them homey. No matter what I do, it'll never be quite the same. Know what I mean?

 

[changm55]

this is a common topic a lot of ppl ask of my friends who own across states or in various countries...

usually the answer for them on where they they would like to call their "true" home boils down to 1.) where they feel the safest when they get really sick 2.) where they want to go die

usually this is where their closest family/friends are located, where they spent most of their childhood, feel the most relaxed+ at peace+ or happiest (family vacation home), and only rarely once in awhile i hear where their ancestral family live (family manor, mansion, etc)... never do i hear anybody call where they work their "true" home

with that said, that place is often different from where they want to 1.) raise their kids 2.) work 3.) invest

this doesnt mean that the place they raise their kids, work, and/or invest they wouldnt call "home" since a home is always where u make of it cept its just not their "true" home... if that makes any sense...  also if ur wealthy enough like them, a lot of times, where u feel the safest or want to go die changes with time (cause social circles change, cities change, etc)

ive moved around quite a lot so i can totally understand what they mean even though i have only a fraction of their wealth... especially when they say their "home" for raising their kids isnt truly their "home" and or where their home closest to their "work"... for example, i went to pittsburgh for school and i probably wont be going back to live anytime soon, but since i know the city really well, if necessary, i could easily move back and feel perfectly comfortable (last time i visited i felt really nastolgic)... but the same could be said about boston where i started my career in tech immediately after college... but for me, my "true" home would be where i grew up and spent most of my childhood, but even that im not sure anymore since that part of town has changed quite a bit since last time i been back as a result of this whole housing crisis... rather instead, i constantly look forward to the future instead of looking backwards... but i guess ppl would say that im losing my "roots", but my roots is exactly what led me to obtain the college education i needed to have in order to have the luxory of being able to pick whichever country, state, and city of my choosing to live in... so it is a delimma but not really haha

 

[cubiczirconia]

I'm a native American (hehe) but for what it's worth, even for me, I think NOTHING ever really feels like "home" once you move out of your parent's house. My childhood home was "home". The rest of the homes since then have only felt like a place to keep the rain off my head even though I try to make them homey. No matter what I'll do, it'll never be quite the same. Know what I mean?

Only child syndrome? I feel that too, but now that my parents moved out of the house and city I grew up in, it's a homeless feeling
Actually only after they moved out and I couldn't connect to the new place they were in emotionally, I decided to dip the four walls of my shelter into the shade of me

 

[cubiczirconia]

usually this is where their closest family/friends are located, where they spent most of their childhood, feel the most relaxed+ at peace+ or happiest (family vacation home), and only rarely once in awhile i hear where their ancestral family live (family manor, mansion, etc)... never do i hear anybody call where they work their "true" home

That used to be my definition of home too.. my parent's house.
But as a mother, I also feel it is my responsibility to give the same feeling of comfort to my children so that they can have a 'home' to talk about when they begin their nomadic adulthood.

Where do I want to die? I haven't thought about it yet, but I will be cremated, so it probably won't matter!

 

[changm55]

usually this is where their closest family/friends are located, where they spent most of their childhood, feel the most relaxed+ at peace+ or happiest (family vacation home), and only rarely once in awhile i hear where their ancestral family live (family manor, mansion, etc)... never do i hear anybody call where they work their "true" home

That used to be my definition of home too.. my parent's house.
But as a mother, I also feel it is my responsibility to give the same feeling of comfort to my children so that they can have a 'home' to talk about when they begin their nomadic adulthood.

Where do I want to die? I haven't thought about it yet, but I will be cremated, so it probably won't matter!

the fact that u even bother to think of providing the same feeling of comfort to ur children means ur a good mother

i dont know how well id be a father haha but i could only hope to be able to do what u have for your children for any of my future children... with that said, on the other hand, i also often fear that my future children will be "too attached", therefore unable to be able to move around like me and make the most/take advantage of the constantly changing economic climate... i mean i think why i am still so attached to pittsburgh with no reason is where i went through a period of loss on who i am and where im from, and that is where i came to terms with myself so it does hold a special place in my heart... i mean irvine is a pretty "sheltered" place so the idea mentioned above of kids being too "attached" has definitely crossed my mind lol... i dunno if i make any sense =_=

 

[cubiczirconia]

the fact that u even bother to think of providing the same feeling of comfort to ur children means ur a good mother

i dont know how well id be a father haha but i could only hope to be able to do what u have for your children for any of my future children... with that said, on the other hand, i also often fear that my future children will be "too attached", therefore unable to be able to move around like me and make the most/take advantage of the constantly changing economic climate... i mean i think why i am still so attached to pittsburgh with no reason is where i went through a period of loss on who i am and where im from, and that is where i came to terms with myself so it does hold a special place in my heart... i mean irvine is a pretty "sheltered" place so the idea mentioned above of kids being too "attached" has definitely crossed my mind lol... i dunno if i make any sense =_=

Thank you
Those are the feelings that every parent goes through- you will question every decision you make/ help make for your children.