Everyone’s heard this one about a million times in their lifetime: The timeless and yet overused expression, “There’s no place like home.” However, we may simply dismiss this as another cliché whose incessant use has deteriorated its true meaning. There’s something about this simple phrase that always strikes a chord with me, regardless of what people these days think of it.
First of all, we need to define “home.” For many people, their home is where they live, but for others, it is where they feel the most wanted, appreciated or involved. Therefore, everyone’s description of home is different and we can’t confine it to a definition, which is one of the major flaws plaguing the societal interpretation of this expression. We need to see it in a broader light.
Home is where you find comfort, solace, joy, love, support and a sense of consistency. For that reason, home may not even be a physical place, but may be another person or a state of being. Heck, it could be a song, book or movie for all it matters. If a specific place doesn’t tick all of the boxes in what quantifies “home”, but an emotion, friend, family member or significant other (as the case may be) does, who’s to say that it isn’t still “home”?
This leads me to my final point: There’s NO Place LIKE HOME. Because of everyone’s distinct interpretation of what a home is, you can’t fit home into a box. Every “home” is different. (Which is why, on a side note, I dislike referring to “home life” because it is in regards to someone’s life at their house, which in many cases may not be their “home.” I prefer to refer to “family life.”) Something cannot be “like” or “different from” home because there’s no reference point. Which is part of the beauty of the expression, “There’s no place like home,” because it makes it very much objective and yet subjective. It is objective in the sense that it’s yes or no; either it’s home or it’s not. Simple as that. But yet, it is subjective, because everyone sees “home” differently.
Nevertheless, no matter what, people will still continue to use this phrase out of context, so I guess what I’m trying to say it that you should always think before you speak because you don’t always know the implications of what you’re saying. Some things may seem as simple as black and white, but have roots deeper than what you can see from the surface.
