home and freedom

now I've been meaning to write on this very topic for some time
it's amazing how lazy I can get
I play the role of the deep thinker but then have to acknowledge
that all my meditation and rumination is but near idle time-wasting


which i do declare I think has a place in the world


and this leads directly to my next topic


where is a man free to do nothing?


our unspoken and cultivated quiet understanding of home is
colored by the principle that we all need a place that is warm
a place where we're welcome and a place where we can kick back
and do absolutely nothing if we so choose
without having to endure the harsh consequences of a social perception
of idleness...a slacker
a slackard


I will even go so far as to say that unless a person experiences the
quality of time which has no constraints or presuppositions...in  a  place called home...
he will spend the rest of  his life quietly but frantically
searching out such possibilities


so this is a fundamental and vital inclination amongst human beings
one which does not get talked about much
perhaps it is too universal to merit anything by way of critique


somehow the portion of freedom we are all offered
is connected to the extent to which we might sacrifice
or extend our very selves in procuring and assuring ourselves
of an actual place whereby we can be certain of security and
self-contentment self-definition and exercise the efforts we must
in assuring that others with whom we live might be assured of the same freedom


perhaps a person is more free in a place called home
than anywhere else in the world


and even while a person must expend energy time and resources
to maintain home
it is understood as a mere obligatory requirement in the life process
of knowing where one lives...where do I live?.... then takes on a heightened sense of meaning


where do I thrive
where is my hive
how am I alive


of course the world has a certain hominess about it
it is possible to travel in the world and find sustenance and shelter and distraction
of any sort...with enough financial backing a person could literally live in and out of hotels
eat at restaurants use public transportation and be as perfectly content as anyone else...I am struck immediately with wondering whether this is a true statement or not 


one might even argue that it is somewhat more difficult to engage deeply
with ones need for home for it lacks the excitement of the world
...but this is the very issue is it not


one maintains home as a place where one is free to partake in life's warmth
in such a way as to be outside the general scrutiny of mankind
a place to sleep
a place to share food
a place to enjoy conversation
a place to plan
a place to sit quietly
and do nothing
or read
a place to care for natures' ubiquitous demands


we are free to be bored of course


somehow we're inclined to do something
unless sleep is the preferred conscious disposition


at some point home obliges us to exert energy
in holding forth with the possibility of
hospitality
and the freedom to be a source of charitable receptivity
not simply a secure refuge against danger
or a fence against the less attractive qualities of society at large
but a place that carries about it a warm openness to
preparing the possibility for optimal enjoyment of life
be that with food
be that with reflective quiet
be that with festive humor
be that with physical intimacy
be that with learned wit
be that an understood moments' retreat
a time of freedom
in order that life's meaning might grab hold


we hunger for freedom
and everyone seems to know without saying
that whatever freedom we will be granted in this life
will be contingent upon the place we dare to call home


we are free to either cultivate or neglect our places
we call home






...I want to explore more keenly
the case for hospitality and the sustaining of home life




















...