Amsterdam
It is possible to love more than one place at a time. Home is a place that holds feelings, memories and history not just somewhere we live. Once we really get to know a place it never leaves us, no matter how long we’re away or how many miles separate us from that place.
I’ve lived in a many different places during my lifetime, from bustling urbane London to the isolated rain-forest scrub of Far North Queensland and many places in between. Those places are scattered like beads on the map of the world yet each one of them holds intimate memories that are forever formed as the building blocks of my life. I know the streets and corners of each, where to shop, what to do and see, how to live there. But as I think about it, I realise that each place is really just an oasis in the vastness of the world, a familiar place surrounded by what remains unknown to me. I could take you through the streets of Sydney or Manhattan or Amsterdam but would struggle in any attempt to find my way from one to the other unaided by others. And so are our lives. We’re often isolated in the knowledge we have of a topic, event or even a place, we become experts in what we know or believe and shelter in that knowledge against the frontiers of other ideas, thinking ourselves safe in what we cling to.
Today on my island it’s a summery 34 degrees Celsius, somewhere in the 90′s in that other scale. As I wash the beach sand from my feet my thoughts are taken to Amsterdam where Google tells me it’s 3C and foggy, a typical Autumn morning. In my mind I can see the streets and canals, I can cross the many bridges and feel my breath steam against the cold. Amsterdam, de stad waar alles kan… half a world away in distance and even in philosophy from where I now am, yet close enough to stir me with its beauty and life. I’ll never forget its sagging architecture and bike choked alleys nor its tolerance for all who find it and call it home. I have returned for a time to my young native homeland yet carry the concepts of that old city within me; I feel I’m a bigger person for the experience. Those men and women who dammed the Amstel 800 years ago didn’t realise that what they built would spawn other cities such as New York or Capetown or Jakarta. Neither did they know the effect the place would have on me.
I can truly support the idea that someone can love more than one place. Though brought up in Amsterdam with all its splendor and thankful for the tolerant multi cultural society, my heart is drawn to other places.
Maybe for some it is a feeling of vacation when somewhere else, or the experience of a different culture, but for some it is a deeply rooted sense of belonging. The percentage who actually dare take the step and start a new life at a new place is very low because many fear the fact of change. I have deep respect for those who dare.
True Boi… change is difficult for us all. Sometimes it’s forced on us by circumstance and sometimes we’re brave enough to chose to do it. And sometimes it just happens.
10 years in Amsterdam has had a profound effect on my world view. I miss its mix of cultures and life. I can truly say there are several places I love including where I am now. Mostly its the people we miss though, and for me that’s the deepest emotion.