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Home and Hearth
The concept of ‘home’ is one that has long fascinated anthropologists,
philosophers and artists, not least because it takes so many different
permutations in the different cultures and periods in which we consider
the idea. For many students of Western culture, the role of the ‘hearth’ in
ancient Greece is of particularly significant interest. Oikos,
as it was then known, was figured as the centre of ancient society; the
foundation
and all-embracing touchstone of family and even public life.
It is a term difficult to translate, but it finds some modern equivalents
in hogar in Spanish, which maintains an allusion to the more figurative
concept of the hearth as a space of communion and familial unity, of beginnings
and endings. In English, the term ‘home’ more and more comes
to imply little more than the physical building in which we live. Yet
in reality, both etymologically and psychologically speaking, ‘home’ is
not necessarily a place, but a mode of being: it is something we feel,
whether we are a million miles away from our place of dwelling.
Yet for the most part, ‘home’ means, to people in Britain,
the place where they have settled, and built a life. Thus any house that
has become a home accrues more than just a legal ownership or tenancy:
it also adopts a more crucial role in our general psyche. The home is
a place where we can feel protected, but also where we feel we can protect
and nurture others, away from the distractions of public life (polis for
the ancient Greeks; the conflict between oikos and polis became the focus
of many a Greek tragedy).
Thus, when a house incurs damage, is broken into or in some way altered,
the genuine damage which occurs is to its figurative role as a home or
hearth. To know that a space we feel so secure in is actually as vulnerable
as we are is a difficult and sometimes upsetting illusion to have shattered.
As innocuous as it may sound, purchasing cover such as home insurance
is a way of patching up any potential dents to the safety of your hearth
and home. Whilst no one wants to be in a position to claim, it is nevertheless
useful to have the assurance behind you.
Companies such as Kwik Fit Insurance offer house
insurance online with
various discounts for combined building and contents cover packages,
as well as providing tips on how to protect your home from burglary,
damage and other accidents or incidents. Whilst it can by no means safeguard
all your things from danger, it can nevertheless go a little
way to protecting
your investment in the place you feel home in.
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