Usually, people encourage you to put down roots, or maybe return to those roots.

But on this edition of selected shorts, stories that find delight in being uprooted, including

a piece by the beloved author Anne Tyler, performed by the great

Jane Curtin. I'm Meg Wallitzer. Stay where you are, or if you need to wander off, take your

headphones. You're listening to Selected Shorts, where our greatest actors transport us

through the magic of fiction, one short story at a time.

For many of us, home isn't just the place where we hang our hat. It's where we hope to stay for the long run. And that's a comforting idea. We know our houses or apartments and all their little quirks.

We know our neighbors, our communities, our cities and countries. And this isn't just about

familiarity. It's also about ease. There's no need to expend excess energy in the business of

daily living. I remember being a kid and suddenly another kid in school announced they were moving

away. That was huge news. They might have only been moving to the next suburb, but I often felt bereft.

And more than that, I felt sorry for them, because I got to stay put in the place I knew best,

moving up in the school that was familiar to me, and returning at the end of the school day to my

same familiar house. But sometimes we're the one who gets uprooted. As you can hear, the idea of

being uprooted sounded scary to me, getting removed from the patch of land in which you have grown

roots and displaced from the soil that literally or figuratively feeds you.

But sometimes removing yourself from a place in which you're entrenched can be liberating.

To be clear, this week's show is not about forced migration.

As important a topic as that is, this show is about protagonists who have agency in their travel.

So in this week's selected shorts,

stories about discomfort and discovery

in the act of leaving home.

...