Saturday, November 14, 2015

Definition: Houses, Histories, and Hauntings

According to the dictionary.com app I have on my smart phone there are approximately 22 ways to define the word "house" when using it as a noun. But I won't be talking-- I mean writing-- about all of these possible definitions. Instead, I will focus on the first and the third definitions.
    1. a building in which people live; residence for human beings
    2. (often initial capital letter) a family, including ancestors and descendants: the great houses of France; the House of Hapsburg
The main difference between these two definitions is the way in which they are applied in the real world. The first is the definition of a house in the most literal sense. A house is a building in which one may reside in for an extended or short amount of time. The second, however, is the definition of a house in a metaphorical sense. Because people and families cannot possibly be considered houses... Or can they?

And that, my dear reader, is the purpose and main reason why I am writing this today and tomorrow and hopefully for multiple days afterwards. My main goal is to address the ways in which our bodies and families, both physically and metaphorically, are houses. Our bodies house ourselves and what a person considers to be themselves. The body is a physical representation of one's identity. Our families and ancestries play a role in our body and our identity in that we are given our body from our family.

The body is a house that holds many secrets. It is built upon the lives and histories of ancestors. It is haunted by the nightmares and past mistakes of the person who it belongs to. It is worn out and broken down over time through the burdens of life and the harsh climate of the world we live in. Words damage the foundation of this house by beating on the identity of the person. These wounds inflicted on the house may not be visible at first, or even for a long time, but they build upon each other and have the potential to demolish the house completely. But just as harsh words can break the foundation, words and acts of kindness can also fix the tears in the foundation.

This is where I'll leave you all for now. Hopefully this blog will have you thinking about what your own house is made out of. Maybe you will be able to identify what your house is made out of, and the things that may haunt it. That is up to you though. It's your choice.

                                                                                                                     
                                                                                                       ~ Sofia