What Eluded us

Watched French Dispatch yesterday and this line — spoken to a character partly inspired by James Baldwin — stuck with me:

“Maybe with good luck, we’ll find what eluded us in the places we once called home.”

Then went on to read James Baldwin as he reflected on his decision to leave his home, America, in 1948, to live in Paris:

“.. the freedom that the American writer finds in Europe brings him, full circle, back to himself, with the responsibility for his development where it always was: in his own hands.

Even the most incorrigible maverick has to be born somewhere. He may leave the group that produced him–he may be forced to–but nothing will efface his origins, the marks of which he carries with him everywhere. I think it is important to know this and even find it a matter for rejoicing, as the strongest people do, regardless of their station. On this acceptance, literally, the life of a writer depends.”