“They’re grownups and they’re criminals, but this is my neighborhood and this is my house, and no matter how old they are, no matter how big they are, they can’t beat me here. They can’t beat me at home.”
– Alex Pruitt, Home Alone 3

Oh, look, a Home Alone trifecta! 🙂

While the adult/practical realist in me disagrees completely with Alex about whether four armed and dangerous adults “can” beat a seven or eight-year-old boy in his home, there is something simply admirable about his determination to defend his home.

Home. That’s actually a powerful word, isn’t it?

We all know, absolutely, that the world is dark and full of terrors… (and I just channeled Game of Thrones, didn’t I?)… but home is not “the world.” Home is supposed to be a place of safety and shelter, a haven from everything bad and evil in the world. Home is where there is warmth and laughter, and family. Home is supposed to be the one place that we are safe, if there is any such place to be found.

Of course, all too often, the world doesn’t let it stay that way. It sends monsters in the night, or in the brazen light of day, even, to threaten and destroy and defile that sacred safety. And the name and number of those monsters is without count, be it a burglar or a rapist sneaking through the window, or a band of secret police knocking down the door, or even a traitorous family member victimizing the most vulnerable. These are hulking, sneaking, terrifying monsters in human form, completely lacking in mercy.

But monsters are not gods. They can be met, and matched, and overcome, and repelled. All one needs is a sufficient amount of force and wit.

And determination.

It all comes down to determination, first and foremost. What was it they said in Batman Begins? The training is nothing, the will to act is everything.

It is the determination of each individual to guard his or her own ground, by any and all means, and against any aggressor, which makes for a safe home.

It is a similar determination to guard one’s neighbor in like fashion which makes for a safe neighborhood. And so on and so forth.

If everyone practiced this simple determination, the predators of the world would soon find themselves overwhelmed by their intended prey.

That would make for a very safe home.

Our home.