Status Updates From Freeman's: Home

‘We wanted a revolution that would overturn the revolution we had just lived through—we wanted to want for nothing—but somehow—all I managed was to laugh—& say—Nothing. You’re a crazy bastard, aren’t you? At a time in my life—I would have taken offence. But after all I had suffered—seen—maybe I actually was a crazy bastard. Maybe that was just another name for one whose sole talent was to see things from both sides—’

‘No one had photos taken in those days—no way of knowing what she looked like when she was young—she was married (or more correctly—she was sold) to my grandfather as a child-bride. He handed over a bag of rice and 8 kilos of yams in exchange—1930s China—she had witnessed almost every conflict in China since the beginning of the twentieth century—Every day she prayed to Guanyin—the most popular saint in our region—’

‘A society—oft defined by how it treats those seeking shelter—pieces here form a calculus of belonging—ethics—Home can let you down more than any other place & still retain its hold over you—There’s a liturgy of home in these pages—praise that goes beyond compliment and edges toward devotion—To find a home—we have to expand our notion of what that means—Ultimately, home is in the body & the voice for so many writers’

“One thing trauma and the resulting restlessness keeps reminding me is that we are all born vulnerable. Unlike an actual house we are not made of wood, stone, concrete, mortar, or cement. We are easily broken, and we might end up spending the rest of our lives trying to find some way to fix that brokenness.” Edwidge Danticat. “All the home you’ve got”

““Ond thing trauma and the resulting restlessness keeps reminding me is that we are all born vulnerable. unlike an actual house we are not made of wood, stone, concrete, mirtar, or cement. We are easily broken, and we might end up spending the rest if our lives trying to find some wayvto fix that brokenness”