NO PLACE
LIKE HOME:
HOME AS A
REFLECTION OF SELF
BY: DR. NURIT ISRAELI
2021
“Home has really less to do
September with a piece of soil than with
a piece of soul.”
– Pico Ayer
¢What is ‘home’? Is ‘home’
COURIER a place on the map? A
physical space where
you can close the door and know
you belong? The people you live
TOWERS with? A place in your heart? A
feeling? Bits and pieces of memories?
All of these and more? Do
you identify more than one place
SHORE as ‘home’? Does the notion of
‘home’ encompass places from your
past? Does it include the place
and ‘home’ held a safe-space status
NORTH where you were born? The place
during the devastation caused by
where you were raised? Which
a raging virus. ‘Home’ became a
places evoke the deepest feelings?
place of confinement, but acquired
24 In the dictionary, the word ‘home’
special value as a place of safety means simply: “the place where one
lives permanently.” But we all know
that there is no finite meaning to
‘home,’ and that the connotation
goes well beyond a single living
space. ‘Home’ seems to encompass
a broad sphere of emotional
experiences, sensory perceptions,
memories, and feelings. ‘Home’– a
seemingly simple four-letter word
– revives reminiscences and strikes
a nostalgic cord.
In preparation for writing this
article, I asked people what is the
first thing that comes to their minds
when they think of ‘home.’ Here
are some responses: Sanctuary.
Security. Safety. Refuge. Coziness.
Family. Comfort. My bed. My base.
Where I can be myself. The USA.
New York. North Shore Towers.
The aroma of mom’s cooking. The
arms of a loved one. Where I longed
to be when I was in the hospital...
“There’s no place like home,”
declares Dorothy (played by Judy
Garland) repeatedly in the classic
1939 film, The Wizard of Oz, as she
clicks the heels of her ruby slippers
together, hoping she can be magically
transported back to the comforts
and the familiarity of the place
she left. Today we call these type of
longings ‘homesickness.’ Missing
‘home’ may feel like a malady...
Longing for home and sadness
related to being far away is a major
theme in songs, literary pieces, and
other forms of art. You hear it when
Bing Crosby sings yearningly:
“I’ll be home for Christmas...
If only in my dreams...”
You hear it in Simon and
Garfunkel’s wistful lyrics:
“Homeward bound,
I wish I was homeward bound.”
John Denver expresses similar
longings when he sings:
“Country roads, take me home
to the place I belong...”
In literature, a typical example
is Homer’s The Odyssey, where
the protagonist, Odysseus tries to
return home after battling in the
Trojan war and manages to get
home after 20 long years away:
“I long – I pine, all my days – to
travel home and see the dawn of
my return.”
The Covid-19 pandemic made
‘home’ exceptionally important.
“Stay home, save lives” was a major
strategy to ward off the impact of
Covid-19 in communities around
the world. It was a directive we
could all endorse to lower infection
rates. We sheltered in place,