‘Home is Where the Heart Is’

About the Author

Carlos R. Diaz is a Technical Sergeant with the United States Air Force, where he works in public affairs and has served two tours of duty in Iraq. He currently is based at the Armed Forces Network (AFN). He resides in
LaPlace, Louisiana, and is a college student.

I’m sure most people are familiar with the popular adage “Home is Where the Heart Is,” right? Good. I am, too. I’m going to tell you a quick anecdote. There was a song playing in the background speakers of the Joe’s Crab Shack seafood restaurant in the Alamo Quarry Market in San Antonio on an idle Saturday afternoon in September 2008. My girlfriend and I frequented the eatery that day because I had a huge craving for seafood. The hostess sat us down at a booth and handed us a pair of menus. Within a few minutes, a powerful song with scorching lyrics resonated not only through my ears, but it penetrated my mind, body and soul. Whenever music is capable of doing that — I consider that power. I said to her, “Gosh, I  remember this song. I really like it, too.” She asked me, “You wanna get outta here then? Is that it?” I looked at her, and — deep inside — I really think both of us knew the answer to that subtle inquiry.

The song in question is “LA Song (Out of This Town).” This song is performed by Beth Hart and it was  released in 2000 from her second studio album Screamin’ for My Supper. It was a modest hit single in the  U.S. charts peaking at No. 88 on the Billboard Hot 100; however, it reached No. 5 on the Adult  Contemporary Charts and climbed the zenith of musical popularity in New Zealand as a No. 1 smash hit. Hart makes specific references to the actual location that she loves/hates. Ultimately, this song is about homesickness, a deep feeling associated with missing home.

I’ve definitely been there, and I’m sure you have, too. We all get depressed or melancholy at being away from home and family. I remember my four, six-month deployments performing our nation’s bidding by fighting in two unnecessary wars. I longed to be home. No, scratch that. I yearned, longed, hankered and pined to be home. We long to venture out into the real world, but —  eventually, sooner or later — home comes calling us back. We get nostalgic and those old vestigial feelings come back again, too. Our only hope is that we are a better person on the way back home than the lost soul who left in the first place. In her song, Hart starts off by writing this powerful line: “She hangs around the boulevard / She’s a local girl with local scars.” We all carry emotional and physical scars. They are a constant reminder of what we’ve endured and experienced throughout the harsh realities of life. Sometimes we feel a need to escape from them. I know I did. I now prefer to embrace them. I’m a stronger person for the “souvenirs” I carry with me.

Midway through the song, Hart says: “And she cried and she cried and she cried and she cried / She cried so long her tears ran dry.” I’ve definitely been there, too. It’s a sad place. It’s that “Woe is Me” party and you’re the only invited guest. I specifically remember what I said the day I left San Antonio to finally return back home: “These have not been the best years of my life, but they’ve  produced the best tears of my life.” Tear.  Kleenex. Repeat.

Toward the end, Hart finishes off her song by singing: “I’m outta my pain / So I’m going back to L.A.” Now, I’ve never set foot in LA. I’ve never lost anything there, so I have no reason to be there. But I fully understand what she meant with that painfully beautiful line. Home, arguably and for all intended purposes, is really where the heart is. Make no mistake about it. I missed my family, friends, church and home. This is where my heart belongs.