audio.

[marxionette]

What exactly does "home is where the heart is" mean to you? It sounds so simple, like... home is where you feel it is, but what really makes you feel like a place is 'home'?

Or - here's another one I've been thinking about - 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder'. I think that one's supposed to be reassuring, or encouraging because it sounds like things are different depending on who looks at it... but it also sounds a lot like the way other people look at you determines everything.

[ And this is how Xion asks for help with her homework and continuous existential crisis. ]

What do you all think?

Comments

audio;

[pullsheavendown]

Where'd you hear that stuff?

audio;

[marxionette]

One of the books for school.

[ I DON'T GET IT. ]

There's a lot of stuff like this.

audio;

[pullsheavendown]

[It's because Xemnas was a shitty home-schooling dad.]

Huh. My school doesn't have any of that, I don't think. [Maybe it did on one of the days he skipped.] It's kind of mean.

voice, id: psychopomp

[glowsferatu]

Thy summation of the second misses one important fact: thou art also a beholder of thyself, and therefore a definer of thine own beauty. The meaning in the saying is that "beauty" itself owneth no objective definition, it is bestowed by those who decide that they have witnessed beauty.

Things are viewed differently by different viewers, yes, but I believe the intention of the phrase is that, for everything there is to be viewed, someone will find beauty in it. If thou findest no encouragement from that, the failure is not thine. It is rather a trite phrase, all considered.

voice

[marxionette]

I guess so...

[ but. ]

That was the meaning that it had in the book, so I understand... I guess I just don't find it comforting personally, knowing that someone can look at you and see something different from what you see.

audio

[monster_san]

I take the first statement to mean that home is where you are with the people you love. That it's more important to be with them, even if you're far away from the place you were born, than it is to have the physical structure of the house.

As for the second... Often people are more apt to notice their own bad qualities than their good ones, and so others who behold them could see beauty they don't. But you're right, it could be taken in the way you describe, too.

audio

[marxionette]

I get it. It makes a lot more sense when you put it like that.

[ Even if the idea of a 'heart' is still confusing, even if she has one - and she's sure she does - the concept of it is so hard to grasp. ]

And it sounds a lot nicer like that, too.

[youresovein]

But the way people look at us, the way we look at ourselves, that does determine everything. I'm not sure there is one objectively true version of the self, just the same as there's no objectively true definition of beauty.

[marxionette]

That's a really sad thought... what if the way you look at yourself doesn't match up with what everyone else sees in you?

audio

[isthatyou]

I guess, for the first part...whatever makes you feel comfortable there. For a lot of dudes that means people they care about being there, but sometimes that's...not enough, or it feels still wrong. for some reason.

The second one...yeah, I don't think sayings like this always want to consider the bad implications. But the way everyone looks at you is always going to affect how you feel, isn't it? For better or worse...

audio

[marxionette]

Like, being somewhere with the people you care about, but knowing you can't stay?

[ The heart is such a tricky thing. ]

It'd be a lot better if people could see you how you see yourself first... instead of whatever they think of when they see you.

audio;

[heliophilic]

I didn't used to get "home is where the heart is" either. I didn't have a "home" and didn't particularly care where I put my head if I needed to sleep.

Then I figured out that it means home is wherever you actually want to return to after wandering around elsewhere. Doesn't have to be your house, doesn't necessarily have to be a house at all. It's just got the people you care about in it.

As for the second one... You can't make someone like you, so why try?

[M is missing the point on "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" maybe.]

audio;

[marxionette]

Oh, I get it now. [ Brightly, because that makes way more sense than a house - houses are just, like, beds.] It's the hearts your heart is drawn to, right?

[ and ]

Is that really what it's trying to say?

[VIDEO]

[forgeabettertomorrow]

For me, my home is where the people I love are. It's why I've chosen to stay here as long as I can instead of seeking a way back to my world.

And as for the latter, I think that it means we all perceive things differently but...we shouldn't worry about what others see. What matters is how we present ourselves. If we're satisfied with that then...it shouldn't matter what other people see.

audio;

[marxionette]

I think, if that's what it means then this place is my home now too. [ Though Axel still needs to be here to make it complete. ]

But what if - what if how people see you affects your whole ability to present yourself? If all the power is in the beholder?

audio

[am_i_a_monster]

Home's meant different things to me over the years.   It used to mean a place where I felt safe and had family.   Then it became something scary, but I still wanted that sense of belonging if that makes any sense.  Then it was something good again, but that got taken away.  Now I think home is what you want to it be.  I guess home for me is being with my pets now.

I think of that expression is about more than people.  Like how you go through an art gallery, you can interpret the art any way you want.  It doesn't even have to be traditional art. Some people can find beauty in the most unexpected places.  Or the other way around, they might see something as ugly that others see as beautiful.   I guess it could apply to people too.  Different people are attracted to different qualities in others.  Maybe it's just that beauty is subjective.

audio

[marxionette]

Another one I read said that a house isn't a home, and I didn't really understand it when I read it, but... I think that makes it make a little more sense now.

[ look metaphors are hard when your clone creator dad sucked. ]

I've never been to an art gallery before [ or like, understood art at all, other than the drawings namine had ] but I guess I can get that. It just - it's just a little sad to think about how much of you is controlled by what other people see.

[ but, um. ]

What kind of pets do you have?

[AUDIO]

[patchricide]

I always thought idioms like those were fairly easier to understand than some of Earth's idioms. That a home is so much more than a physical location — even another world can be your home, so long as you can feel like you truly belong there. And the latter, that we each have our own distinct perspective, one cast through the lens of our feelings.

... but honestly, it's the simpler idioms that trip me up. For example, have you heard people say that they're 'sick as a dog'? But most of the dogs I've seen are so... lively! And playful!

[sorry, alien problems]

[AUDIO]

[marxionette]

These might make more sense if I knew a little bit more about hearts and beauty. It still just sounds to me like someone is looking at somebody and deciding things about them. [ She guesses. Hearts are so confusing??? Like why does the anatomical heart not look like Kingdom Hearts, huh? ]

I've never heard that one before. All the dogs I work with are really energetic! But... sometimes some of the newer ones are a little sick. But I wouldn't think all dogs are like that.

audio;

[unglitch]

[ There's a long thoughtful hum on the other side of the communicator. ]

What made you bring this up, Xion? For me, home is with those that I care about!

audio;

[marxionette]

My homework. I keep having to stop and look up the meanings of things... and sometimes the meanings don't make it any clearer.

voice;

[plentystrong]

I never heard either of those.

[ So, the Horde? Not big on poetic or motivational quotes. ]

voice;

[marxionette]

I didn't until I came here, and it feels like sayings like this are everywhere.

Audio

[janus_scholar]

I think that both phrases are highly influenced by perspective... As you've mentioned, the second can be seen as a reassurance or a grim outlook on prejudgement.

The same can be said for the first... I'm certain that many among us feel as though their “heart” is still home, far away from here...

I believe that how a person views these sayings is worth more than the original meaning.

audio

[marxionette]

[ Her literature course is so much harder than she thought it'd be. ]

Yeah. [ but. ] I've just been reading them, and I think that changes a lot of the meaning of the book though.