Hotels, Home, and Reference Points

So I'm sure you have found yourself in a place where you are returning to wherever you are sleeping for that night, and just instinctively call it "home". Then a friend asks "Home? Its just a hotel?" And you catch yourself wondering "Hummmm... That's odd. Why did I call that home?"

It seems like the place where you will lay your head for the night is a general term for home now a days. I think it is also a clever short hand for a place that you feel comfortable staying, along with being a hub for your operations in whatever area you are staying. What does this say about people, or at least my friends, in today's age?

Last week I did some trainings with my VISTA group on communication and dialog across cultural differences. Now while the training itself wasn't about place, there was an exercise we did where we had to listen to a person, uninterrupted, for three minutes. It was harder than you think.

The topic of place came to up with one of my partners. She talked about her lack of place, and how she felt deep connections with every place she has lived in her life. She then explained that even though those connections were deep and meaningful, she still felt troubled by the fact that she didn't identify with one place versus another. Is there a societal norm that says we have to choose one over the other? Why can't we feel invested while living on a multi-way bridge between different places?

I guess the ultimate reason is that it boils down to a need for concreteness. In today's quickly changing world, we still have a desire to latch onto and establish a solid base. Perhaps that is our nature? To categorize and settle?

But more and more we are transforming these ideas of roots into moveable roots. Its easier and easier to split and graft different species onto one another across the globe. So ones mobility determines how one sees the world, and what identities and agencies arise out of that.

So more and more it can be said people are becoming more independent in their thinking and identities. We see this in the "global citizen" identity, especially in environmental movements. No longer is ones view tied to a nation or state, but increasingly to the globe.

There is resistance though. Stronger local identities can assert themselves in conflicts, and this is okay too. We are battling millions of years of agricultural evolution, where staying put meant you lived longer and survived. That paradigm is changing at an incredible rate, and change at today's pace is difficult to deal with. So we have to navigate this mine field of local versus global. How do we do it?

It first starts with managing this transition with as little harmful conflict as possible. There are numerous theories and methods out there for this management, but killing and destroying physical beings is not going to stop and win the local versus global debate. Once we can hone this conflict into a non-harmful interaction, then we can start to forge something new.

I like looking at the rapid change in today's society as a new flavor of the human state: hyper-interconnected migrants. We move. Its what we've done for a while now. We have just done it very very slowly in the past. We should let ourselves become hyper-connected migrants. We can share ideas literally at the speed of light, such as I am doing now. This quickness brings more people into the solution creation process, and allows for even more individualized reference points for the world. People can create their world as customizable as they wish via this new digital migratory revolution. They can embody themselves as much, or as little as they wish, because in this new world, having the choice and liberty to determine your own direction is the new norm.

So next time you log into Facebook or Twitter or any other online medium, remember that you are participating in one of the biggest and most customizable ventures our species has undertaken ever. And that it is okay to claim a place, but it is also okay to live on an impossible bridge that connects limitless landmasses and cultures. The world is yours, so be amazing in it.