"every migrant knows in his heart of hearts that it is impossible to return. even if he is physically able to return, he does not truly return, because he himself has been so deeply changed by his emigration. it is equally impossible to return to that historical state in which every village was the center of the world. The one hope of recreating a center now is to make it the entire earth. only worldwide solidarity can transcend modern homelessness. fraternity is too easy a term; forgetting Cain and Abel, it somehow promises that all problems are soluble. in reality many are insoluble — hence the never-ending need for solidarity.

today, as soon as very early childhood is over, the house can never again be home, as it was in other epochs. this century, for all its wealth and with all its communication systems, is the century of banishment. eventually perhaps the promise, of which Marx was the great prophet, will be fulfilled, and then the substitute for the shelter of a home will not just be our personal names, but our collective conscious presence in history, and we will live again at the heart of the real. despite everything, I can imagine it. meanwhile, we live not just our own lives but the longings of our century."

— john berger in and our faces, my heart, brief as photos

credit to a comrade who pulled this quote out in our messages together and it has stuck in my mind ever since.