Every Sri Lankan, and almost every visitor to Sri Lanka, carries a longing for the place in some small form - hiraeth, the Welsh call it - wherever they go and whatever their background. It binds them however much the war and politics might try to divide them.
Interpretation
The quote expresses a deep, universal longing for one's homeland that transcends background and challenges.
Romesh Gunesekera's quote emphasizes the profound connection that individuals have with their homeland, Sri Lanka, regardless of their personal experiences or the political turmoil affecting it. The term 'hiraeth,' a Welsh word for a deep-seated homesickness, encapsulates this sentiment, suggesting that this longing creates a bond among the people, uniting them through their shared love and nostalgia for their home despite external conflicts.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of cultural heritage.
In the sense that writing is to retrieve the past and stop the passing of time, all writing is about loss. It's not nostalgia in the sense of yearning to bring back the past, but recognition of the erosion of things as you live.
Jews read the books of Moses not just as history but as divine command. The question to which they are an answer is not, 'What happened?' but rather, 'How then shall I live?' And it's only with the exodus that the life of the commands really begins.
For in spite of itself any movement that thinks and acts in terms of an ‘ism becomes so involved in reaction against other ‘isms that it is unwittingly controlled by them. For it then forms its principles by reaction against them instead of by a comprehensive, constructive survey of actual needs, problems, and possibilities.
There is nothing more foolish, nothing more given to outrage than a useless mob.
What ought a man be? Well, my short answer is 'himself'.
Try and leave this world a little better than you found it, and when your turn comes to die, you can die happy in feeling that at any rate, you have not wasted your time but have done your best.
There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.