A Little Thing about Belonging

This morning the postman rang the bell. That usually means one of two things: something I ordered has arrived or someone sent me something. This time it was the latter. A small package from Australia. Inside was Shaun Tan’s new book, Hometown. There was a little handwritten postcard and a note inside the book, too. Shaun’s lovely dedication “for Marc + family (in their northern hometown)” Oh, how that made me smile. I’ve known Shaun for a while now. Not known as in knowing someone really well, but in that lovely way friendships sometimes develop when you meet someone, stay in touch and every now and then something arrives in the post that reminds you of that connection. I first met Shaun in Melbourne in 2017. At the time I thought he still lived in Perth. I was going to be in Melbourne for an event, so I wrote him, telling him that I was in Melbourne, so close and yet so far away still with him living in Perth. How happy and surprised I was when he told me, that he recently moved to…