| By Bob Weaver
In the evolution of humankind, the creation of homes, abodes to live, may historically be the most significant accomplishment of human beings, according to anthropologist John S. Allen in his book "Home."
Allen says whether we live in an igloo or in Buckingham Palace, the fact that Homo sapiens create homes is one of the greatest puzzles of our evolution.
While it is obvious homes protected people from the elements and predators, they created an evolutionary space where human beings socially interact and mates and off-springs could bond.
Allen says they provided a place where people could sleep soundly, increasing memory and memory formation.
They are places for thinking, at least at one time, removing us from the distractions of the world, a predictable environment.
The constant hubris of noise from media devices has removed that possibility.
In more modern times, we have declared feelings of homesickness, when we are away too long.
I still experience that feeling when I've been on a trip, cruising toward home and the comfort of the familiar.
In 21st Century America, home is often a place families are moving toward.
The rooted-ness of rural families in the same communities, generational living on the same plot of land or homestead, is evaporating.
Still, in Calhoun, we have some families connected to their place,although People of Place are evaporating
The US Census Bureau says most people in the USA are changing locations about every five years.
Memories of home are still treasured by older people where families and extended families gathered for Sunday dinner.
In my lifetime, it has been rewarding to re-feel their presence.
What mattered most, as we've often written, was the environs and connections of those living in a close community, where we exist on planet earth.
Now we share in other peoples lives by electronic gadgets, which brings a virtual feeling of being connected.
Just how that holds up with the evolution of human socialization remains to be seen - living without the presence of those we know.
Perhaps the old adage - "Home is where the heart is" - will hold true, or maybe not as we move toward Artificial Intelligence "virtual reality," there could be a feeling of being alone.
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