The circle of life

Recently the most special friend asked: “What book, Michel, you have read recently has made the deepest impression?”

That is not an easy question.
Being an avid reader often fantastic books are read.
Hence, which one to choose?

The answer given was a book written by the Flemish author called Hugo Claus titled “Het verdriet van België”.
A book that is inaccessible for the Anglo reader due to the context of the story and the Flemish language that would lose too much if translated into English.

Fortunately, there is another book that has made a deep lifetime impression.
A book written by Thomas Wolfe called “You can’t go home again”.
It is the story of George Webber who has written a successful novel about his family and hometown.
When he returns to that town he is shaken by the force of outrage and hatred that greets him.
He begins a search for his own identity.

It is no coincidence that a book that has as a subject homecoming, is one of the favourites.
Because when a person lives without a home, the issue of coming home is prevalent.
If not in the conscious, the desire for being able to come home will announce itself through dreams.

Strangely enough, the possibility to come home cannot be solved by simply buying a house somewhere.
A house is not necessarily a home.

These days the strong opinion is dominating that the only way for a man to truly come home is when a woman in his life tells him to come into her arms.
Symbolically speaking.
Although the literal sense will be true also, it is the shelter and the protection only a woman can offer that will give the feeling of having come home.
In combination with the man able to deliver himself into those arms.

Is this bizarre and weird?
Not at all, fervent and loyal blog readers.
We must remember that men come from women.
That men have the closest relationships with women.
Both physical and emotionally.
Starting the moment they are born.
Hence, when men learn to be independent and have their own life, at one point they most likely should return to where they came from.

It is the circle of life.
To be born from a woman.
To die with a woman.