Houseplant *Upon Casey's urging*

This may look like an ordinary houseplant to everyone else in the world, but to the Gasway family it carries a special meaning. I don't know what type of foliage it is. For all I care it's pink and green foliage. To us this plant isn't something we bought to put into our house, it's something we bought to signify "home".

Seems like most people settle down in a place and THEN have kids. Well I've always done things bass ackwards. I had kids and still haven't settled down in place. My kids have lived in three states and four different houses. However, their home has remained the same; Mom, Dad, our routines, and (drum roll please) the plant.

I don't see the change as a bad thing. There is no negativity in it for us. If anything it is routine for us to change. After we moved back from Colorado in 2004 I realized that, although my kids didn't need to us to maintain a physical placement that was constant, they did need a symbol to let them know that, "this place is my 'home'". So I went to Kroger and bought the cheapest, smallest, houseplant I could find, and I vowed to the boys to keep it alive! I explained to them the idea that where this plant lived is where our home was. They seemed relieved to have the plant around.

My kids reinforced for me the idea that home, and house are very separate ideas that can be easily confused with each other. They didn't care where they slept, they cared that we were all together. They needed to know whether where they slept was where our family had movie night, and was free to scream out in anger and cheer. The plant came to embody the idea of home. I think this means that now I could live in my car and if the plant was there they'd feel secure. (a little pavlov's dog eh!)

The plant is their cue. Always on the kitchen window pane, it speaks of security and togetherness for all of us. It acts a the discriminative stimulus for all of us. Where there is THE plant there is the Gasway family unhinged, unabashedly airing all our idiosynchrosis, quirks and other phenomena (see picture of Willem above). Because that's really what "home" is all about right? Airing your weirdness with no fear of rejection or retribution. Where we go so goes the plant, poor thing. I think it should be named to make it an official member of our household. What'd ya say? Maybe we should just give it a title instead? Something royal and important sounding of course. Any ideas?