one for nostalgia

i thought these tucked in quite nicely to the home theme i've been running through my fingers this past week...


[one]

I often ask myself what exactly nostalgia is. In my case, it's not so much wanting to live in Chile as it is the desire to recapture the certainty i feel there. That's my home ground. Each country has its customs, its manias, its complexes. I know the idiosyncracies of mine like the palm of my hand; nothing surprises me, I can anticipate others' reactions, I understand what gestures mean, silences, formulas of courtesy, ambiguous responses. Only there do I feel comfortable socially -- despite the fact I rarely behave as I'm expected to -- because there I know how to behave and my good manners rarely fail me.

Isabel Allende
"My Invented Country"