Feels Like Home

 I'm a sucker for "anthropological" shows. I put that in quotes because I mean a wide sort of thing with it. The solid gold jackpot shows, which are surprisingly hard to find, are like, "Let's follow these Himalayan yak herders/Siberian trappers/Yanomamo kids around and see what they do all day." But it also includes those foodie shows about regional taco varieties and the people who make them now in LA (those families are so proud of their tacos). Or an essay from a lady who misses doing Lunar New Year in actual Asia, how it feels different there (spotless floors and everyone being dressed in red when you went outside). 

There's one on Netflix about traditional, super-involved, region-specific Chinese foods, but not made for Americans, so you get these great moments where they're like, "And don't we all remember and love the homey smell of fermented sheep entrails?" in the same warm way we'd talk about like, gingerbread cookies, and my mind is blown.

I want those little details about who does what chores, how important it is to clean which things and how, where they sit together as families. Because I know how I grew up, in the Ohio suburbs with an English/German heritage (which was perfectly lovely), but I wonder for other people:

What makes a place feel like home?

Is it just as simple as "this is where my stuff is?" Maybe that's the minimum to get you there. There were a few weird days when I first moved out to California, my mom and I were in a hotel, and all my stuff was packed into an Altima. When things got overwhelming, I'd go sit in the Altima, because it had become imbued with a sense of "home." Doesn't take much.

But you can take it so much further! If we were to make a game about a community of people/goblins/whatever in the mountains, there are so many things that can make that place feel rich, welcoming. That can make it feel like the characters who live there want to live there. What are the rhythms of their lives, and why? What's their favorite part of the day? What's their most prized possession?

If they had to leave this place, what would they achingly miss?

I don't mean or want to go down a cultural appropriation path here... It's not about finding other people's cultural tidbits and lifting them into a video game. That's not cool. I guess it's more about trying to open my mind to other ways of living that are satisfying. So that I can be more creative when the time comes to come up with some of our own.