I get what you're saying and appreciate the point (while laughing at recall of the awful Goons). I quit the Foreign Service in large part because I did not want to become one of those homeless diplomats. Still, it's easy these days to lose your 'home' through its own changes, which can distort it beyond recognition and break that bond -- which might be more wrenching, or at least in the same ballpark. At least that's my story.
'Making' a home as an adult is like making a family (alas, I'm not sure you can have one without the other). It takes full commitment / faith, accepting it won't be perfect, mental and emotional clarity, and, my guess is, in a lot of cases (certainly in mine) an enormous amount of luck. Perhaps as well, endless stamina. When you've been without that home feeling, there are so many pitfalls - romanticizing the homes you think others have, tossing aside the good to seek the perfect, hidden pockets of reservation or detachment within yourself that keep you separate, scars and fears, to name a few. I think it's healthy to know that home is not a magical state of ecstasy and also not impossible.
Ultimately, we seek to lay up our treasures in heaven, for there our hearts shall & must be also.
I know exactly how you feel. By the time I was graduating from Hi Skool, I had moved, on average, every two years. Hunter, AFB, GA, where I was born, Lake City AFB, TN, Sembach AFB, Germany, Adair AFS, near Corvallis OR, but lived in Albany, back to Germany, then San Antonio and Lackland AFB, then my father retired. Being an Army or AFBrat is not a stable life. It's, generally, not as bad for Navy or Marine kids as there are far fewer places to be stationed. A Navy dad can go PCS and not leave San Diego, or Norfolk. There are exceptions, however.
I'm sitting in the mountains of western NC now. I like it, but it does not feel like home. This is probably the area where Christ will find me for the Rapture, or they are shoveling dirt in my face, before the Rapture.
I get what you're saying and appreciate the point (while laughing at recall of the awful Goons). I quit the Foreign Service in large part because I did not want to become one of those homeless diplomats. Still, it's easy these days to lose your 'home' through its own changes, which can distort it beyond recognition and break that bond -- which might be more wrenching, or at least in the same ballpark. At least that's my story.
'Making' a home as an adult is like making a family (alas, I'm not sure you can have one without the other). It takes full commitment / faith, accepting it won't be perfect, mental and emotional clarity, and, my guess is, in a lot of cases (certainly in mine) an enormous amount of luck. Perhaps as well, endless stamina. When you've been without that home feeling, there are so many pitfalls - romanticizing the homes you think others have, tossing aside the good to seek the perfect, hidden pockets of reservation or detachment within yourself that keep you separate, scars and fears, to name a few. I think it's healthy to know that home is not a magical state of ecstasy and also not impossible.
Ultimately, we seek to lay up our treasures in heaven, for there our hearts shall & must be also.
I know exactly how you feel. By the time I was graduating from Hi Skool, I had moved, on average, every two years. Hunter, AFB, GA, where I was born, Lake City AFB, TN, Sembach AFB, Germany, Adair AFS, near Corvallis OR, but lived in Albany, back to Germany, then San Antonio and Lackland AFB, then my father retired. Being an Army or AFBrat is not a stable life. It's, generally, not as bad for Navy or Marine kids as there are far fewer places to be stationed. A Navy dad can go PCS and not leave San Diego, or Norfolk. There are exceptions, however.
I'm sitting in the mountains of western NC now. I like it, but it does not feel like home. This is probably the area where Christ will find me for the Rapture, or they are shoveling dirt in my face, before the Rapture.