Do our childhood experiences define our definition of "home" for life or does our definition constantly evolve?
Dear Andrew,
A key question here is “what is it to feel at home”? Is it the deep bonds that we form in our early lives & the memories that come with them or it is something more physical – a shared place or landscape? The answer is probably both.
But, as someone who has experienced her sense of home as an “other” my idea of home is not bound by a sense of place or childhood bonds but in Robert Frost’s words with “something you somehow haven’t to deserve”, a place where not only you are not required to move & that you belong, but you don’t question your belonging. In today’s world this is the sense of “home” that is the hardest to sustain.
Professor Maria Baghramian
UCD, Dublin
Maria Baghramian
University College Dublin, Ireland
Website
I came upon Murdoch's novels long before developing a serious interest in philosophy. Then and now I thought her writing reveals the world and the human condition in profound and surprising ways. Here is an example.
"But I had come to where I had never been before, the blessed point of sufficient desperation" (The Sea, The Sea)
