March 30, 2021
Dearest Bitter Southerners,
Home is a complicated idea. Is it the physical bricks and mortar in which you live, or is it a feeling? Is it the people you see each day who contribute to the feeling of belonging that comes with “home”? Can you feel at home anywhere? My boyhood home, just outside where we still live, can be visited and recently was re-designated a national historical park. There you can see where I grew up with my parents and siblings. There are mules, goats, a large vegetable garden, and honey bees. After attending college and the U.S. Naval Academy, Rosalynn and I lived on naval bases in Hawaii and Connecticut, but my home was always Plains. When I decided, unilaterally, to move our family back to Plains after my father’s death, Rosalynn was none too happy. She was content being an officer’s wife. Going “home” had not been in her plans for us. We later lived in Atlanta in the Governor’s Mansion, and as you know, moved to Washington, D.C., in 1977. After being involuntarily retired from the White House, we returned to Plains to a peanut business and mounds of debt. We added an office to our home from which I could work, writing the first of many books and restoring our family business. We then decided that we still had so much we wanted to do, and in 1984 broke ground on the Carter Center. Through our work there, Rosalynn and I have traveled to 146 countries promoting human rights, health, and peace for all.
I have been fortunate to have seen the world, and I am grateful for the many experiences I have had. But, as our staff can tell you, the objective has been for us to be at home in Plains as much as possible. I always have felt drawn to the South. I visit our family land, our ponds, our town. Inspired by 36 years of volunteering with Habitat for Humanity, we are working on a project now to revitalize substandard housing in our hometown, building or repairing homes for those in need. For me, as Rosalynn and I approach our 75th wedding anniversary coming up in July, my home is wherever she is, whether in South Georgia or South Sudan. Holding her hand, reading our Bible together each night, falling asleep next to her, that is my home.
Photos by Dustin Chambers
