Assignment: The term nostalgia describes a yearing for the past, often in idealized form. The word is a learned formation of Greek compounds, consisting of "returing home," a Homeric word, and "pain" or "ache." It was described as a medical condition, a form of melancholy, in the Early Modem period, and came to be an important topic in Romanticism. In common, less clinical usage, nostalgia sometimes includes a general interest in past eras and their personalities and events, especially the good old days of a few generations back recast in an idyllic light.

Sometimes it is brought on by a sudden image, or remembrance of something from one's childhood.

Approach: Isn't just being at home a most wonderful thing? For me, home is not necessarily a town or an address. Rather, it's where the people I love are, it's the little gestures that say this is home. Usually, the little beings of plastic, porcelain, Wood, and cellophane that participate in my photographs are simply thrown away by their owner once they have served their purpose.

This time, I pulled them back out of the dust bin, brushed them off, looked deeply into their little eyes and said, "Please …." Behold, they told me their innermost, secret stories about homesickness.