As you may know, I was born in Northampton (although raised in Easthampton), and lived there for a good part of my young adulthood. But even though "homesickness" could apply in my case, that doesn't alter the truth of your postcard, with its message of mutability and longing for "meaningful other worlds." I think it was Thomas Wolfe who so eloquently and compellingly wrote about homesickness in his "You Can't Go Home Again." But it was in another of Wolfe's masterpieces, "Look Homeward, Angel," that he touched the very soul of this issue, with his epigraph, "O lost, and by the wind grieved, ghost, come back again."
I get it. Washington DC has an Oz effect on me. I know it wouldn’t be the same if I went back and saw my old neighborhood but I think it was a magical time…
As you may know, I was born in Northampton (although raised in Easthampton), and lived there for a good part of my young adulthood. But even though "homesickness" could apply in my case, that doesn't alter the truth of your postcard, with its message of mutability and longing for "meaningful other worlds." I think it was Thomas Wolfe who so eloquently and compellingly wrote about homesickness in his "You Can't Go Home Again." But it was in another of Wolfe's masterpieces, "Look Homeward, Angel," that he touched the very soul of this issue, with his epigraph, "O lost, and by the wind grieved, ghost, come back again."
Thanks for this wonderful comment, Bruce. xx
I get it. Washington DC has an Oz effect on me. I know it wouldn’t be the same if I went back and saw my old neighborhood but I think it was a magical time…
What a lovely comment, Doreen. It's always nice to write something that sparks something in the reader's own past. Thank you!