Friends,

A number of returning sojourners find themselves and the places and peoples they left behind changed in major ways. Sometimes folks get a little bluesy about the situation. As an eight time returning sojourner, I have had these blues, well, seven times. I tried to identify the causes of my dismay and identified eight major factors. These are named, in true academic fashion, as follows:

Déjà vu
Semantic Satiation
Phantom Limb
Unfinished Business
Friendly Insouciance
Stimulus Deprivation
Obsolescence
Expendability

I composed (and sing) a longer somewhat comic blues based on these themes. The shortened doggerel versions are reproduced below. Trust they resonate.

ted rodgers

RE-ENTRY BLUES

Deja Vu
Well, the outpost is over,
At last I’m home,
But, Wow, it’s dj vu.
I’ve been here, done this, seen it.
I think I’d rather be on the roam.
Wouldn’t you?

Semantic Satiation
Like saying a word again and again,
Until it loses its sense.
I’m semantically satiated,
And I live my world in past tents.

Phantom Limb
I’m scratching an itch that isn’t there,
Way out on a phantom limb.
Where are the legs I used to kick.
In my distant ocean’s swim?

Unfinished Business
I’ve left my destiny incomplete,
Distant crises left to solve.
But what will happen now that I’m home?
The crises may just dissolve.

Friendly Insouciance
“You’ve lived THERE, it must have been great!
Tell us exotic tales.”
But if your story is more than one-line,
Firm friends’ fascination fails.

Stimulus Deprivation
With exotic conditions I’ve had to cope,
Solving problems’s what makes us alive.
But the problems here I’ve all seen before.
I’m terminally stimulus deprived.

Obsolescence
I know I was skilled before I left,
Technology’s changed the game.
I’ve become obsolescent in this short time.
There’s new CHILDREN I can’t even name.

Expendability
I was the critical link in the chain,
They couldn’t do without.
But somehow the chain is holding fine,
I’m the expendable gadabout.

Invisibility
In my foreign port, they knew who I was,
And most even knew my name,
Here’s home and I feel invisible.
I’m the waterboy at the game.

Deja Vu
Well, the outpost is over,
At last I’m home,
But, Wow, it’s dj vu.
I’ve been here, done this, seen it.
I think I’d rather be on the roam.
Wouldn’t you?