A place is only a place

Dune, by Frank Herbert, is probably my favorite book of all time. I read it twice in college (once on my own, and then once as assigned reading for a sociology class). That's right - we read Dune in a social science class because of the the story's richly developed religion, social structures, classes, etc. I've read it a couple more times since then, as well. It's a story with many themes; many facets to think about and digest.

One particular bit of dialogue that has stuck with me, and that I think about quite often, comes in a scene before the Atreides family has left their homeworld, the blue planet Caladan. The household is preparing to relocate to Dune, the rich but deadly desert world so unlike their Caladan. The novel's protagonist, Paul, asks his tutor (the Atreides Master of Assassins), Thufir Hawat, if he is going to miss their present home. To this Hawat replies "Parting with friends is a sadness. A place is only a place."

When my family moved from New York to Maryland, and while I was living in Japan, I mostly agreed with that sentiment. Sometimes I still do. I don't miss living in New York, but I do miss friends that remain there. I miss friends and people who were special to me in Japan. And if I were to leave the Maryland/DC area, I probably wouldn't miss it so much, though I would miss some people here.

There definitely are things I miss about life in Japan, though. Shops and places, smells, sensations. Of course the mind revises and romanticizes memories so that we don't place as much weight on the things we don't miss.

I think one of the things I miss the most often is the sight of hills or mountains in the distance. In many of the places I lived or visited in Japan, there were rolling forms off on the horizon. As Bilbo Baggins says, "I want to see mountains again, Gandalf, mountains[...]"

I suppose the question isn't black and white, as is the case with so many things. How about you, dear readers? Are you the type to miss places? People?