This, That, and the Other

For this week’s Thursday Inspiration prompt, Jim Adams has instructed us to respond to this challenge by either using the prompt word home, by means of the song “Darlin’ Be Home Soon,” or by going with another song by The Lovin’ Spoonful, or anything else that you think fits.

In my old age, I’ve become a real homebody. I’d rather be at home than be out and about these days. And it’s not just because I busted my hip three months ago and need a walker to get around. It’s more about getting used to sheltering in place at home over the past three years due to the COVID pandemic.

I’m not a shut in or a hermit. I do venture out periodically. Earlier this week my wife and I went out to lunch and to see a movie in a movie theater. But the truth is that I feel comfortable at home. I feel at ease at home. And I feel, well, at home at home. And the song that came to mind when I read Jim’s prompt was “Homeward Bound” from Simon & Garfunkel.

Paul Simon lived in Brentwood, Essex, England when he wrote the song. When traveling back from Wigan, where he was playing, he got stuck at the train station and wrote this. The song has a double meaning: literally, wanting for a ticket home to Brentwood, but on the other hand, yearning to go to his home in the U.S.

Back in my working days I traveled a lot for my job. Most of my travel was domestic, but there was some international travel. At first all that travel was exciting, but it pretty quickly lost its appeal. I would spend a lot of time in airports and hotel rooms and after a while, l longed to be heading home, instead of to the next destination for my job. And I often thought of the song “Homeward Bound,” but typically it was in an airport terminal rather that at a railway station.

I'm sittin' in the railway station
Got a ticket to my destination
On a tour of one-night stands
My suitcase and guitar in hand
And every stop is neatly planned
For a poet and a one-man band

Homeward bound
I wish I was
Homeward bound
Home where my thought's escapin'
Home where my music's playin'
Home where my love lies waitin'
Silently for me

Every day's an endless stream
Of cigarettes and magazines
And each town looks the same to me
The movies and the factories
And every stranger's face I see
Reminds me that I long to be

Homeward bound
I wish I was
Homeward bound
Home where my thought's escapin'
Home where my music's playin'
Home where my love lies waitin'
Silently for me

Tonight I'll sing my songs again
I'll play the game and pretend
But all my words come back to me
In shades of mediocrity
Like emptiness in harmony
I need someone to comfort me

Homeward bound
I wish I was
Homeward bound
Home where my thought's escapin'
Home where my music's playin'
Home where my love lies waitin'
Silently for me
Silently for me