Between Make-Believe and Memory

I can imagine the insistent pull within a migrating animal to return to its place of origin. I have felt similar longings. Having lived my early childhood in a row house section of Baltimore, I experienced a visceral response to this image of abandoned row houses in a downtown Baltimore neighborhood. Make-believe (my imaginings as a child) and memory (the real events) live side-by-side, overlap, rearrange, and conflate, creating a powerful emotional connection.

Row House Photo © 2014 Alana Semuels, as originally published in The Atlantic, used with permission.