You CAN go home again

My hometown's most famous son, novelist Thomas Wolfe, wrote "Look Homeward Angel" and "You Can't Go Home Again", among other things, sometime around the 20s or so, I think. I dunno. (YOU Google it!) I never read either one; but I can point you to his childhood home and tourist attraction on North Market St.

I have discovered that you can go home again, though. There was something surreally gratifying in seeing for the first time in 30 years, people that I used to see nearly every day, from age 6 to 17, familiar faces and friendships graced by maturity. It was overwhelming and warm and fuzzy. I believe we all felt that way, transported back in the day, before the service, before undergrad, before the marriages, the kids, the divorces, the illnessness, the moves, the gains, the losses. People that you knew who 'knew you when' we were trying on different selves for size. Life was simple then.

What a sweet distraction!

Like many in the blogosphere, though unannounced, I apparently have taken a break from blogging--and not just because Facebook has warped my brain so that my attention spans a nanosecond. It's mostly because the dire state of affairs given the Citizens United decision, the battering economic news and the unimpeded decline of American 'civilization' has stepped up my escape planning: Panama or Belize? Ghana or Croatia? Nostalgia-tripping with longtime mates was a sweet stateside escape for which I am ever grateful.