true north

I'm home for the holidays, and over Christmas eve dinner (spaghetti, Italian sausage, meatballs) my dad was talking about true north. It made me think about what it means to go home (I digress, but at Heights Arts I once saw a print of a bird flying a dotted line from point A to point B, which was home. I went back to buy it and it was GONE. I loved that print.)

If I had Photoshop here, I would just MAKE the print.

Anyway, my dad was talking about finding true north for the purpose of calling in artillery rounds when one is a LRRP (Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol) in the Vietnam War, which he was. I'm thinking about true north in terms of finding home, orienting oneself, blahblahblah. A friend at work said to me "I think home for you is wherever your parents live." This is one kind of home- a childhood kind of home. But what about an adult home? What does it feel like when you are oriented correctly- at your personal true north?