Va, Pensiero

A lot of people get really touchy-feely/excited for being back in some land where they feel some sentiment. Good for them. I'm not one of them.

In Verdi's opera Nabucco, perhaps the most famous song out of the entire work is "Va, Pensiero" or "Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves." It is about the yearning of a lost homeland. Some people have interpreted it as an anthem for il Risorgimiento, but recent scholarship has disproven that notion and Verdi's role as a whole as the aristic paton of il Risorgimiento has been downplayed.

I can sort of understand. It sucks being a stranger in your own place, especially if you've been attached to somewhere for a while. I've grown up not really growing an attachment to where I was. It was a place to me. There are millions of places around the world. It was just another place, and I could always find somewhere better/more interesting. Something happens to the place I am, whatever. I'll cry about it when I'm dead.

As such, I really don't understand why people develop attachments. Yes, it feels nice to be grounded, but all things are pro tempore. It'll probably go away before you do or something else might happen and then you're out of luck and wandering around lost. So what's the inherent point?

Who knows. Maybe we're just programmed that way, despite the logical problems it presents.