I’m a homebody

I’ve been thinking somewhat about home and what that means. It seems to me that that a good answer for how to live with four kids is to stay close to home. That got me to thinking about how that’s a good answer to many questions that float around in my head. Perhaps it just that I’m a Cancer, and they’re notorius homebodies, so I’m destined to love my lazy boy. I think there’s more to staying close to home however and I’d go so far as to say it’s even a good rule of thumb.

How is my life changed if I stay close to home? It certainly affects how I shop, or what I do on the weekend. It could even affect what I eat. Just consider the effects of a garden, if one chose to grow some of their vegetables at home. To do a garden well, you begin to think about your free time differently. You have to spend your evenings home tending the little garden, cussing the critters that help themselves and wondering what the weather tomorrow will be like. See, you’re already well on your way to becoming an old man.

But really, I’m intrigued by the ethic of staying close to home. Wendell Berry, no surprise, can shed some light here. He was asked what are some little things people could do to live more consciously of their home. Berry answered:

I think this starts with an attempt at criticism of one’s own economy, which may be the same thing as good accounting. What are the things that one buys? How necessary or useful are they? Almost inevitably when one asks these questions, one discovers that they are extremely difficult and sometimes impossible to answer. That frequently is because the things we buy have been produced so far away as to make impossible any stewardly interest on the part of the consumer. And this recognition leads to an even better question: How can these mysterious products brought here from so far away be replaced by products that have been produced near home? And that question, of course, leads to all manner of thoughts and questions about the possibility of a better, more self-sufficient local economy. What can we neighbors do for one another and for our place? What can our place do for us without damage to us or to it?

Wendell Berry has of course been at this sort of thinking and living for some time, so he asks some pretty well developed questions. His starting point is important. Living close to home means we have to take responsibility for how we live in relation to where we are, so we have to be very conscious of ourselves in relation to those around us. Our self-consciousness, though, has to be guided by some sort of principle and that’s where the homebody attitude comes into play.

~ by The Bosphorus on July 3, 2006.