Random Thoughts on Home
Sharing the thoughts of others and contemplating creativity
I can’t keep up. It’s not just me though, is it? All this technology that was supposed to make our lives easier and more fun, well, it’s a lot of work.
The Washington Post reported this week that 65% of Gen Z describe themselves as video content creators. I almost put that description in quotation marks, but that would only date me. Air quotes for something that feels made up but instead is very real.
Granted, Gen Z is ages 14 to 24, but I can’t help feeling the tech enthusiasm has captured every generation. Before I launch into a lament, however, let me share a few newsletters I read recently, which speak very succinctly to home.
This one really resonated. Things are never the same, except that in some way they are. I continue to really enjoy everything Emergency Contacts is sharing.
This is a very interesting analogy worth considering. If friendships aren’t equal or reciprocal - any relationship, for that matter - then, well, they’re not the same as “being home”.
And finally, some of you may already be familiar with Sharon Blackie. Our fields of study (myth, story, the hero’s journey, home) are very closely aligned. While I wasn’t aware of her when I was in grad school, I’m not surprised to learn she now teaches at my old school. In the following post, she talks about what it means to feel safe at home, a safety that requires a sense of belonging, and how difficult that can be to find.
These are great newsletters that I hope you will consider subscribing to, if you have the time to read more newsletters, that is.
I understand that to keep you, my readers, more engaged, I probably need to be offering more varied content. Videos, Notes, Threads, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, even Tiktok. I hope you’ll forgive me for my inability to do so. It’s all a bit too overwhelming for me. Too much technology, too many platforms. Too many passwords and too many security breaches. If I had the luxury of only doing this, maybe I could keep up, maybe.
But I will keep sharing my thoughts on home, as well as the thoughts of others, to the best of my ability. Thank you for being here.
Warmly, Jan
I missed the survey, but have a story that relates to it.
Back in the day, I oversaw my agency’s aid programs in Sudan. It was so hot in Khartoum that people joked about how it cost a mere quarter of a dollar to call Hell from Khartoum because it was a local call. As you can imagine, it was tough to keep the expatriate positions filled.
There was one new employee from the US who, after he arrived, managed to second a big diesel generator and a half dozen window-mounted air conditioners. Because of the fierce sandstorms, he used rolls of duct tape to seal every actual or imagined opening in his apartment. I remember observing his very real panic when the generator needed service and the temperature in his apartment climbed toward 65 degrees.
Later, we hired an Australian from Queensland who never bothered with air conditioning and who sat around at home in his tidy whiteys without complaining once about the heat.
Different heat strokes for different folks.
Finally, I found the most succinct definition of home I’ve heard so far. Home is where you don’t have to worry about toilet seat hygiene.
Thanks for sharing us alongside such wonderful posts! Def reflecting on the notion of reciprocal relationships and how we can show up better for one another. (Sometimes you're the orca, and sometimes you're the trainer 😬)