Piney Woods Philosopher: The instinct to return home

By BILL COBBS/Columnist

Piney and She Who Must Be Obeyed had been called back to Florida for a business reason and would return to Virginia at some unknown (so far) time.
Meanwhile the old philosopher was wondering what was it that caused people to always want to return to the places of their birth and growing-up? Was it something genetic? Was it the physical appeal of the area? Was it friends?
In Piney’s and She’s case, it seemed to be a combination of family and church members. They got a lot of pleasure out of St. Paul’s Lutheran in the cornfields and seeing daughter Louise and son-in-law Stuart.
But the old philosopher put the question to She, why do we return home?
“Well, dummy,” she said, “It’s simple! Birds return to their birth nesting, geese fly back home regularly, and we, as animals, do the same thing!”
Piney sulked in the corner of the cabin on top of the mountain, “I ain’t no bird nor no goose,” he thought.
“But I like to come back to Southwest Virginia!”

A writer, Bill Cobbs divides his time between Southwest Virginia and Florida.