you know how if you look out at whatever it is that you look out on from wherever it is that you're sitting - how that whatever it is that you're looking out on seems like that's where the whole rest of the world is?
it's not. the whole rest of the world is right here. where you're sitting.
one of the worst things we do, i think, is to perceive that the world "out there" is in some way more real or at least more interesting than the world "in here." it starts us down a path of dreaming which, on the face of it, doesn't sound so bad (it sounds good,in fact), but it's usually not. because most people's dreams - at least their awake ones - are "better" than the here and now. which pretty much makes the here and now if not exactly not worth living, then at least not worth living enthusiastically.
and that's tragic.
the tendency to look out at whatever it is that we are looking out on and to think that that's where life is really happening is especially pronounced when, say, we're sitting outside on a summer evening and we look out over the horizon. or when we're at the beach. it's almost impossible, i think, to sit on the beach and look out over the ocean and not think that whatever it is that's over there on the other side is better than what's right here. especially when what's right here is sand in your crotch.
last night i was sitting on my back patio, which backs up to a vast green (green for now, anyway) cornfield, and i looked over the tops of the stalks and out to the horizon and i thought to myself, over there is the quaint little town of canal winchester. and the quaint little town of canal winchester is better than this.
and then i "looked" beyond the quaint little town of canal winchester and thought to myself that beyond that is, oh, say, charleston, south carolina, for instance, which is waaaaaay better than this. i mean, talk about quaint!
and beyond charleston, south carolina is jamaica, where even just the word "man" is said in a better way than how i say it here on my silly little patio.
and then i stopped myself. or, more accurately, a neighbor stopped me. a neighbor i had not yet met dropped by (seriously......"dropped by." who knew they still make people who "drop by?") and he jolted me back up north, to the here and now. and i invited him to sit down and we talked for about an hour and got acquainted and my dog sniffed at his legs and then my dog "asked" for a pat (and got one) and then she settled down at my neighbor's feet and took a snooze.
so, yeah, mon.
there's no place like home.
