a city's lingo

Dear friends,


I am on the 33rd bead.  And I would like to stress again, that if you have not read this book, you NEED to.


Liz talks about how she loves Rome, but she knows it is a city in which she would never spend the rest of her life. Her friend Giulio explains that she and Rome have different words.  The he goes on to explain that "'every city has a single word that defines it, that identifies most people who live there.  If you could read people's thoughts as they were passing you on the streets of any given place, you would discover that most of them are thinking the same thought.  Whatever that majority thought might be--that is the word of the city.  And if your personal word does not match the word of the city, then you don't really belong there.'
'What's Rome's word?' I ask. 
'Sex,' he announced.
'But surely there are some people in Rome thinking about other things than sex?'
Guilio insisted: 'No.  all of them, all day, all they are thinking about is sex.'

Now if you are to believe Giulio, that little word--sex--cobbles the streets beneath your feet in Rome, runs through the fountains here, fills the air like traffic noise.   Thinking about it, dressing for it, seeking it, considering it, refusing it, making a sport and game out of it--that's all anybody is doing.  Which would make a bit of sense as to why, for all its gorgeousness, Rome doesn't quite feel like my hometown.


This started me thinking about my hometown, which for the sake of my own privacy we'll call Atown.  I absolutely love, with my whole entire being my hometown.  I feel like Atown and I share the same word, thought I'm not 100% sure what that might be--romanticism perhaps.  Walking down the streets of Atown one feels like they have entered a painting, with old fashioned wrought iron streetlights, long well-kept sidewalks, people stopping to say hello and comment on the beauty of the day.  I love this town.


I told my mom once, that when I come home, I'm driving down the long hilly path by the orchard, and I look at the breathtaking mountains--my soul, it almost audibly sighs.  Home.  I'm home it says to my heart.  This is perhaps why my current city has never felt like my hometown--we don't share words.  And, maybe Atown takes up all the space in my heart.


Love Always,