Sunday 15 January 2012

familiar, unfamiliar, familiar

This evening Nish and Chris hosted a lovely party here at their home to celebrate the beginning of semester and welcome Megan, Matiu and me to Edmonton. We had a great time... a few students and staff from the uni here came, and we all did that thing you do at relaxed gatherings of good people: drink a bit or not at all, eat a lot, talk, laugh, and sing a few songs... we could be here, we could be at home.

Looking around the room at one point, I found myself clocking familiar and unfamiliar things: some references I didn't get, some songs I didn't know, some of the people I was meeting for the first time; but much of it felt comfortable and, in some ways, I could have been anywhere. Well, anywhere like this.

Meanwhile, my house in Waiwhetu has been slept in, eaten in, enjoyed, visited, straightened up and unpacked into... I've now seen quite a few photos with my familiar furniture and dishes and linen, and have also been searching the photos to figure out parts of the new house which are unfamiliar, new, unique. It turns out, my houses always look like my houses - even when I haven't even been in them yet! Familiar, unfamiliar, familiar. Family, unfamily, family. That's me.

No comments:

Post a Comment