Homes Everywhere

I was emailing with a reporter about a month ago (no, the article is a secret until it comes out!) and she was asking about my name, since I had made a fuss about her getting it right. Here is what I say:

“My name is Jessica, J-E-S-S-I-C-A, Dickinson, D-I-C-K-I-N-S-O-N, space-not-a-hyphen-just-a-space, G-O-O-D-M-A-N. That’s Dickinson as in Emily, not Charles; yes D-I-C-K-I-N-S-O-N. Goodman as in John Goodman–ok, you’ve got it”

Jessica Dickinson Goodman. I had mentioned our cover article in the Willow Glen Weekly to her, and she was where I got Dickinson, but was not sure about the Goodman. I explained that Goodman is my father’s last name, and I spend about half of my time at home with him and half in Willow Glen and

“I sort of live in Palo Alto, Willow Glen, Pittsburgh and now Washington DC. Talk about a blended life.”

Moving between houses on a schedule for most of my life makes this kind of network of homes comfortable. I have a home in Palo Alto, a home in Willow Glen, a home in Pittsburgh, and a home in Williamsburg, VA (or, at least, a couch on which I can sleep). This is all possible because I know that my home is both wherever I am, and where my family and close friends are. This means that I am both never home (because my family and close friends are never in the same place) and always home (because their presences follow me wherever I live).

I almost always feel like I am home.

Inspirational Quote:

(34) The American public owns the airwaves over which programs are broadcast. The finite nature of capital and the structural limitations to access to broadcasting mandate a public interest in what is broadcast. Programming will always be limited, and because it makes use of public assets like the airwaves, the public has a reasonable vested interest in what is broadcast.”–Judith L. Tabron