'if you could be anything,' one said to the other,' what would you be?'
looking up from a book, 'what? oh, i don't know...i'd be content as a low-level executive or something, making enough money to pay the bills.'
'no no...i mean anything.'
'ah, i see...a place.'
'a place?'
'yes. a place'--and the other explained--'a place sees things. it watches all the people come and go. their stories. their lives. ..why?'
'just wondering.'
'well, what would you be?'
'hm...i'd have to be more than a place. you're right, a place watches the people...but then lets them go, without another thought. you may never see them again..you'd hear them cry and leave, never knowing what came of it all. i would--i'd have to be more than a place. i'd be..Home. Home for someone, something. anything.'
'how do you mean?'
'alright--try this: what is Home?'
'what is a home? i don't get it..'
'that's not what i asked, i said what is Home?'

finally after a few moments, a response came:
'a shelter, cover..place you can always go back to.'
'places again. there's no place that's intrinsically Home. sure, you can make a place home if you can manage to become part of it..but the place in itself is not Home.'
'well then, it's not necessarily a physical place--perhaps a mental, emotional haven. something you always want to return to, where you can feel warmth.'
'warmth..Home is in relationships with the smells, sounds, and memory. if you don't feel the Life of home, then what's the point?'
'so you want what, exactly?'
'the thing about home is this: when you're home for something, then that something becomes Home for you. everyone needs Home, and every Home has something belonging to it, or it wouldn't be a home. i want to find home, sure..but even more, if i could be anything, then i'd be home for someone. just think--to give someone that kind of comfort. security. warmth..'
'and what if you couldn't? what if you couldn't be Home--then what?'
'i'd be the sky.'
'ha..how odd. the sky, you say?'
'the sky, i say.'
'and why's that?'
'no matter where you are in the world, there's a sky. whether you can see it or not, it's there. if nothing else--the sky will be there, at least as long as you are.'

'...so the sky or Home, then?'
'that's right.'
'and that's all you want?'
'sure, why shouldn't it be?'
'...think i'll stick with my first answer...i'll go for being that low-level executive.'
'i'm sure.'



smear time to grey.