Irony

I've been thinking about the idea of irony.  Often I have to explain it to my students, which is tricky because they don't get the irony of my explaining irony to them, but there you go.  Anyway, the reason I am thinking about irony is because of an article I read in a magazine.  You know how that goes, you're merrily reading away and then a seemingly random thought creeps in and doesn't let go, then your enjoyment of the article is gone because, like bad elevator music, the thought won't go away.  So there I was thinking (yes I know, I really should be careful when I do that, it could be dangerous to self and others).  The thought was how ironic it was that my ancestors left their homeland, and my ex's ancestors left the same homeland, neither knowing each other, and over a hundred years later my youngest son returns to live in the country his ancestors fled.  Thus the irony.  Weird how that works, huh.  To think that people who left a country would have a relative in the future return to the same country.  Hmmmm.  Time travel maybe?  Time shrinking and/or expanding?  Did they have any idea that one day, centuries later a relative would be returning?  Did they care?  Probably not when trying to figure out what to do with your life in a new place would be top priority.  Which brings me to moving and how I'll be trying to figure out how to manage in yet a new place as a person who is going to a country I've never been to either.  My ancestors and I have a lot in common that way - you know, adjusting to new and strange places, well strange to me, not to the people who live there, though I'm sure they'll think I'm a little strange.  That's ok.  What fun would there be in being the same?  Until next time I have a thought, I think I'll go and lay down and maybe it will go away.