So, I have called this out on a limb which is where I am. In between - not quite there but not quite where I was. This is for two reasons. I had a home and a culture and now I don't. I moved away and the culture remains with me: it travels with you wherever you go, but home...does this travel with you too? My students and I discuss the second and third generation expats and wonder whether having no sense of a firm culture makes any difference. Do we need this sense of certainty in our history, this sense of belonging? Does leaving your homeland leave you out on a limb?
The second reason is that I carry with me this illness. It's with me all the time but it hides behind me like a shadow and only shows itself occasionally. So, you never really get to know it. Cures have been offered in the press but the illness would still hide behind me, it wouldn't show itself in order for the doctors to chase it away, so how could we state with any certainty that it's gone for good? So, for the time being it's a friend (or should that be enemy?) that i don't know very well.
So watch this space as I get to know it whilst I'm out on a limb.
No comments:
Post a Comment