Notes Towards a Theory of Homesickness

1. Homesickness is not a longing for a structure with a roof and rooms and windows that fog in the morning. It is not the ache for a city whose name you still say aloud when no one is listening. It is a subtler absence. The place might still exist in the same position on the earth, uncollapsed, uneventful, utterly indifferent to your grief. The people m…