It is a truth universally acknowledged that all of us are looking – for something or someone or somewhere, we are looking for that thing which we feel would complete us. Living in a young country where European migrants constitute the majority of the population and capitalist culture is the milk we raise our children on, I have always felt a niggling sense that I do not belong here.
My heart sings for wild places, places where one can get lost amongst the trees and legends of heroes and monsters. I feel as if I am disconnected from my heritage and culture somehow as the only “culture” I have known so far is that of a bland and corporate world, motivated my greed and the desire to grow bigger, better, faster. This is, partly at lest, the reason I read and the reason I write. These past times provide me with an avenue to escape and a sense of a richer culture than that which I have experienced first hand.
However, I am no longer so naive as to believe that a mere change of scenery will permanently and perfectly change my sense of belonging. The world is a changing place. Still, I hold out hope that somewhere, sometime, perhaps with someone, I will find something to which I can belong wholeheartedly and unreservedly. And really, who wouldn’t want to find that?
R.E. Navan 