SwimFinsSF

Heimat

When I was studying German at the Goethe Institut a while back we got into a long discussion of the German word Heimat. If you look it up in a German / English dictionary the definition is Home / Homeland / Country. But the discussion around it was that the meaning was a far less tangible thing that is farily deep seeded and important to Germans. It is a sense of center and a sense of where you come from and where you live. There is a definition on Wikipedia that is interesting but that didn’t even quite cover it. Its a little hard to describe but I think the english word home has some of the same connotations but we tend to discount it much more and overload the term with ‘the place where you sleep at night’. I like Heimat better..

So I’ve been feeling a bit lost lately for a variety of reasons that really aren’t a big deal but as I got to work today that term popped into my head and I started to understand it. There are a lot of things that are rather topsey turvey in my life - for good reasons but still upside down for various reasons. I woke up in a cold empty house with Kevin thousands of miles away. I took a bath in a tub with no shower, leaky fixtures, and construction all around (don’t get me started). I’ve been drinking warm soda and eating in restaurants cuz of the lack of a fridge. November and December always suck at work cuz of performance reviews and deadlines. I’m trying to take care of all my Christmas shopping in time and find gifts for family that are meaningful. Oh.. and all my favorite shows are on their winter break so i’m stuck with re-runs.

All of this kinda makes me understand more clearly what they mean by Heimat and why its so important. Its your center and the keel that keeps your boat upright. Its a sense of whats truely ‘home’ in your life. Where you come from, who you are, and what you hold to be sacred. When those things get jostled its more unsettling and makes it harder to deal with the other things that don’t matter so much.

But this really isn’t a weepy or upset post or anything. All of these things will be fine and I just gotta muscle through them. House will be GREAT - Kevin’s learning good stuff - and Lost and Battlestar Galactica will return! :):). Its just the typical engineer / scientist analyzing touchey feely shit that I usually just ignore. All’s good - just doin a little self discovery!

Anyway - thats a long enough break - got bugs to fix… Hasta pasta!