Years ago I was awarded a scholarship – I can’t even remember the nature of it – but as part of that scholarship I was invited to a recipient dinner. There were 3 of us. One of the other recipients and I got into an in-depth discussion because her study was around forensic-biology and her thesis covered a fascinating topic to me: isotope de/re-generation.
Stay with me here.
Her thesis was something like this (it’s been over 15 years): the human body is a sum of the objects and other human beings it comes in contact with. According to her research, as we walk through the world, we exchange isotopes with other objects and bodies: I sit in a chair and my isotopes transfer to that chair and the chairs isotopes transfer to me; I spend time in contact with another human being and we exchange isotopes. Pretty crazy and I don’t know whether she proved it or not, but it made perfect sense to me at the time and it has made more and more sense to me over the years.
When someone asks me where am I from, this is a harder and harder question to answer. I was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchwan. Moved to St. Pierre, Manitoba before I can remember anything. Then relocated to Sundre, Alberta until I was 16. At that point, I moved to Calgary, Alberta, then Brandon, Manitoba, then back to Calgary then a couple of years later to Toronto, Ontario….then to San Francisco, California and now I live in Montreal, Quebec.
But that doesn’t really quite cover it. I’ve made my home these places, but spend more than half of my time on ‘the road’ – traveling – to various places. And not just traveling…experiencing. Connecting. Often in ways that impact the way I look at the world around me. My brief trip to India changed me fundamentally. My couple of trips to Paris changed me profoundly. Every time I’ve set foot in New Zealand or Hawaii or in New York City, I have felt like I was at home. I belonged. And tonight, and over the past couple of days, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I’ve been in Tokyo, Japan before. That I need to stay here. That this is me.
Every place I visit and every place I live changes me. Like the isotopes my fellow scholarship recipient discussed in her research, I feel like I physically absorb every single experience/place/person I encounter. I’m not a Canadian (though I’m a proud passport holder), I’m a Canadapaneuropindiamerican something or other. Some cultures, like Calgary, Toronto, San Francisco and now Montreal, I ‘get’ more because I’ve spent significant time in them. Others it takes me a couple of hours/days to feel a connection to. Others I want to learn more about, but the short experience has effected me nonetheless.
A piece of me remains in every single place I’ve been. And I’ve exchanged a piece of that place and taken it with me. This isn’t merely travel. I can’t reduce it to that. But there isn’t really a way to succinctly describe it. I recently encountered a young man without ‘roots’ (proudly) who, when I asked where he was from, told me, “Nowhere…and everywhere.” And I completely identified with him even though I have a solid home base in Montreal.
I’d like to run into that fellow scholarship again and ask her to test my isotopes. I’m sure they would tell an interesting story.
I can relate. We moved around a lot when I was a kid. My dad was in the navy, my mother not very stable. In fact, there may only be 3 of the 18 years I went to primary school that I was in the same class all year. Needless to say I became very adept at adapting. And now, as I travel the world ‘exchanging isotopes’, no matter where I go, no matter where I live – I’m home, and I’m a local.
And if the other scholarship recipient has explored virtual biology, then things get even muddier. Since the age of radio, many of us spend time in a physical world, while others of us spend time in a virtual world. Initially, in the radio days, this world was audio-only and we were passive participants. But as television emerged, followed by computers, this virtual world became more and more like a real destination. I “go to” Blogger and Google Reader and Facebook, and while the experience is not as full as going to an In-N-Out or a Tim Horton’s, it’s still a “place” of sorts.
I so relate. I was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, but grew up in three small Texas towns. Loved Cuero, where I spent my high school years (halfway between Houston and San Antonio). Austin, Houston, San Antonio, Manhattan, Dallas, and now San Diego for 22 years. They’ve all been home, and I loved most of them. I have to say though, San Diego is pretty tough to beat! What I’ve learned: I can be happy living almost anywhere — from small towns to some of the biggest cities in the world.
How this is true! Some places more than others resonate with us, and, as we grow older and change, we also feel that our favourite places are changing with us.. And traveling alone is a beautiful way to “melt” and “feel at home”..
Bell’s Theorem (a quantum physics law): Once connected, objects affect one another forever no matter where they are.
Tara, I think you are describing both a new and an ancient way of seeing ourselves as citizens of the world.
I still like Martha Nussbaum’s article, Cosmopolitanism, as a way of thinking about this. http://www.bostonreview.net/BR19.5/nussbaum.html
“Asked where he came from, the ancient Greek Cynic philosopher Diogenes replied, “I am a citizen of the world.” He meant by this, it appears, that he refused to be defined by his local origins and local group memberships, so central to the self-image of a conventional Greek male; he insisted on defining himself in terms of more universal aspirations and concerns. The Stoics who followed his lead developed his image of the kosmou politês or world citizen more fully, arguing that each of us dwells, in effect, in two communities — the local community of our birth, and the community of human argument and aspiration that “is truly great and truly common, in which we look neither to this corner nor to that, but measure the boundaries of our nation by the sun”
Read David Bohm for more on the quantum physics angle on how objects affect each other.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Implicate_and_explicate_order_according_to_David_Bohm
Totally agree with what you’re saying. I became fascinated with the whole side of the affect of people, places and things on our lives after my Nan died. She’d had such a massive affect on so many people’s lives yet we only knew a bit about it. I started to put together Odbody.com to see if we could help see the major influences that events/people have had on our lives. I don’t think it achieves it yet but my hope one day is this massivemap of your life and all the influences that made you who you are.
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And also, how much time have you spent on the internet?
Not a real place, of course, but it does have a certain existence to it.
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