"Home" in a Foriegn Country

Today I was reminded how much I love getting lost in the moment, and how some things transcend oceans. Most of us think of music and dance as transcending, but organizational patterns, types of tourist attractions, religion, and other art forms also transcend. I suppose it's all due to commonality between all humans. For instance, we visited the Museum of London. Museums in the U.K. are organized pretty much the same as museums in the U.S., this one having rooms organized by time period. And you can find museums in every country in the world. I guess part of being human is having a desire to document and share your history with the world. We visited St. Paul’s Cathedral, as well, and I was surprised by how many Americans have been connected with that building’s history. There is even a monument to Randolph Caldecott in the cathedral.

Tonight I visited a music and poetry concert near Waterloo station, which reminded me more than ever how some things transcend oceans. It wasn’t just that an art form like poetry speaks to people all over the world. I was reminded of that last night, at the Poetry Café, when a French poet gave a poem in French. It was more about the topics and subjects addressed: love and sex, food, feeling alone, missing the past, missing people, being shunned, quarrels with family or friends, family that you never even knew, and being “randomly” selected for questioning at the airport because you look Iraqi. But images also transcend: ocean foam, grimy alleys, the taste of dust in your mouth, the clammy touch of excited skin, the rhythm of drums and heartbeats, and even the Scottish fantasy of rabbits dancing in ritualistic fairy style.

In fact, many of the things that I took pictures of during our tour today are not original to London, or the U.K. Many of the things that caught and held my attention long enough that I wanted a snapshot, were ordinary symbols of home. Now “home” the physical place, but “home” the place I hold close to my heart. Home: the things I care about. For me this "home" includes cats, and pigeons, and trees, and blue china. I am an animal lover and have had pet cats all my life. I have argued with friends that despite artistic potentials, I could never live in an American big city without trees everywhere. I need greenery just to survive emotionally. And blue china will always have a special place in my heart simply because of a book I read as a child. In fact, this lucky cat on the left is both a symbol of an animal that I love and a TV show I adore. A British tele (British slang) show actually: Sherlock! Yes, the lucky cat has a very important part to play in one episode of the BBC’s modern twist of Sherlock Holmes. Everywhere I look or listen in England, I find mementos of home.

 Pigeons on a Statue outside St. Paul's Cathedral

Blue China on Display in the Museum of London