"I'm Gonna' Quit These Rambling Ways"

(this works best if read while listening to "Don't Think Twice" by Bob Dylan)

I have become very fickle in what I consider "home." While watching a band from my town play in another city this weekend I became a proud Sackvillian - glad that I knew the words to the songs, that I knew the band members, and that I got the jokes about life in Sackville that the rest of the audience didn't understand. Yet, when I am in Sackville there is very little sense of "home" here for me. Yes, it is where my family lives (well... My parents anyway) and where my house is, but it is not where I find most of my friends, any history, or any sense of my identity. I have been rather nomadic for most of my life, and have always had difficulty with the concept of "home." In all of the traveling I have done I have visited places in which I have felt more at home than anywhere I have ever lived. On the other hand, I visit Halifax and feel at home in a city where I haven't lived for 10 years - yet I felt no sense of permanence when I did live there. I have heard people speak of the concept of a "spiritual home" which is a little bit out-there for my usual tastes, but it is actually something I can relate to very well. So while I root-on Sackville musicians, cheer when a Saskatoon sports team wins, and am proud to show any of my friends around Halifax, these are not the places where I want to spend my life. Look for me in Edinburgh.