Boxes are packed. Sort of. Miscellaneous junk lurks in every corner, waiting to be captured and subdued before being placed in cardboard containers. A sheer joy it is to know all of my theology books sit in liquor boxes. Martin Luther would be proud. Like anyone else in the process of moving, I realize that I have far too many possessions. On the other hand, I hardly feel like an adult knowing that that the majority of my boxes are full of books, CDs, DVDs, and clothes. No furniture will make the trip. So I could quite easily cast off the rest of my treasures that weigh me down in this life. If I really wanted to.
So I am moving back 'home'. Home, of course, in the generic sense of 'home state'. I did not grow up near Des Moines. I can only remember a handful of times that I ever went there as a kid. We were prairie people. Sioux City, the center of our universe. The Loess Hills, cradle of our civilization. Only in the past 6 months have I come to realize my own origins at all. Salix, Smithland, Oto. Barely a crumb-sized dot on the map. Yet, three of my grandparents grew up within a thirty-mile radius of one another, astride the bluffs along the tributaries of the Missouri River. (Another, merely a stone's throw away in Nebraska.) The great-great grandson of immigrants to the Great American Desert.
Living for so long in the South, I have never felt quite at home. Sure, at times I have fallen into the pit of Romanticism and fallen in love with Southern culture and Southern people. The land itself has a story to tell. Yet, most of the time I have felt like an outsider, a mere observer and 'hanger-on'. After a slight detour, I am finally coming back to serve among my people. Sort of. My sister tells me Central Iowans are different from Northwest Iowans. She can't explain it. They just are. I will try my best.
The other day, while visiting the power company to arrange shutting off service, the person behind the window glanced at my new address. "Iowa? Oooh...I love Midwesterners!" I guess that is the general consensus. We are awesome.
