Home is where

I didn't know that I had any Asian forebears, but it seems that I am Asian, if you go by what I'm going to tell you.  And there's even a word for the condition, and for those who walk around with it.

We are called hikikomori (Japanese: ひきこもり or 引きこもり. It means  "pulling inward, being confined", or "dealing with acute social withdrawal". If a Japanese person is reclusive, be they adolescent or adult, prone to withdrawing from society and preferring a lot of isolation and confinement, they fit the bill.

SO if you feel that way, you are part of the Hikikomori  condition, and you have Hikikomori. We are modern day hermits.

Japanese clinicians interview their patients and look at four boxes to check:


⌧  spending most of the day and nearly every day confined to home,
⌧  marked and persistent avoidance of social situations, and social relationships,
⌧  social withdrawal symptoms causing significant functional impairment,
      duration of at least six months, and
⌧   no apparent physical or mental etiology to account for the social withdrawal symptoms.

In modern Japan, some 700,000 residents are certified Hikikomori.

Now, maybe I kid, but only just a little. I do spend most of every day hanging around the house, I do avoid social situations, I get a little nervous if I have to go to some function (so I don't go) and there is no etiology (cause for the condition) that any doctor can spot, not that they are looking.

Truth to tell, I am one of the millions of Americans whose status (retired) means that I have no business strutting around in public as long as the pandemic is still going on.

I make my grocery run once a week and order in what I can't easily pick up at the Giant, and we do fine with my cooking here. For entertainment, for crying out loud, I have books I have yet to get around to reading, movies I have yet to watch, and enough music on vinyl, cassette, CD and mp3 to listen to until the world ends.

Speaking of which, I have selected the theme song for my funeral. It's "Happy Days Are Here Again" by the Ferko String Band, and I expect all participants except myself to form a jubilant conga line and snake out into the community happily.

The Joseph A. Ferko String Band

No, I have no sign that the curtain is coming down any time soon, but the Asian in me says that I am happy here at home with my wonderful wife and we don't need to be any closer to the madding crowd than we are. I love Peggy and I love life and the best part of it takes place right here in our house!