What About Tradition?

There are various problems and ideas related to homesickness: immigration, linguistic differences, social and cultural barriers, liminal spaces ...

Apart from them it is worth considering tradition when discussing homesickness. Tradition as such refers to and is made up of our important beliefs as well as our daily habits and customs, behaviour and mentality. Take for example the situation when young people leave home with a view to studying abroad, far away from the family and homeland. Soon they find out that the new reality requires adjustment and adaptability to the different conditions. The process can be a very painful experience for them as they often feel lost among people whose native language is foreign to them.

In my opinion "tradition" in a broader sense provides a valuable link between all the people and the universal motherland of humanity which for the Europeans is the Mediterranean culture that created and established the base of the Western civilisation and defined the meaning of values such as: love, truth and beauty. However, new ideas are continually being adapted to fit in with the old long-established views. Under these circumstances some people may be longing for the purity of transcendental values which are frequently forgotten and rejected from our lives by the modern materialistic society.

All in all I think that homesickness is a brilliant but usually difficult subject to evaluate as it can be introduced, examined, understood in different ways. That is why I strongly believe that what we should be aiming for in final performance is to achieve a universal experience of the topic.

Anna Nieczuja-Ostrowska