Home
The man who finds his homeland sweet is still a tender beginner; he to whom every soil is as his native one is already strong; but he is perfect to whom the entire world is as a foreign land.
Hugh of St. Victor (c.1133, 1961)
‘It is even part of my good fortune not to be a house owner’, Nietzsche already wrote in the Gay Science. Today we should have to add: it is part of morality not to be at home in one’s home.
Theodor Adorno (1951, 1974)
...what is true of all exile is not that home and love of home are lost, but that loss is inherent in the very existence of both.
Edward Said (2000)
Home: personal, central, a foundation for so much in our lives. We cleave to home, we leave home, the prodigal returns to his home. But the slave has no choice, the refugee cannot return, the exile must not go back; in contrast the economic migrant and the ex-pat are seeking new homes. So many stories: so much revolves around our relationship to home. Home is both a physical and a mental location in our social networks - being located we
belong,
Roots are examined by various writers, Wendell Berry is the source on this page.
and belonging - something many of us thankfully have - we extend the security of childhood onward through life. Just as we know the paths, lanes, and by-ways by our house, so we accept the ghosts, hidden gems, and happy memories from home. Known devils effortlessly trump strange ones, and delight is magnified in memory, so the home we celebrate offers security and support, letting us luxuriate in the reciprocated
benefits
A key aspect of our homes is the way Gift Economics operates.
of having a location in a
community.
Gunn and Berry on being located in a rural community.
However, there are many who believe that the
rejection
Basho takes up the theme of renouncing home from the other side of the world.
of this comfort lies close to the heart of morality.
The Hugh of St. Victor quote is from page 101 of the Columbia University Press Edition of his Didasclicon III 19 translated from the Latin by Jerome Taylor. Theodor Adorno’s Minima Moralia: Reflections from Damaged Life appeared in German in 1951, it was translated by E.F.N.Jephcott and published in English by New Left Books in 1974, the quote is from the 2004 Verso edition page 39. Edward Said’s Reflections on Exile was first published in the UK by Granta in 2001, the quote is from page 185 of that edition.
The Saddlery, was my home when 17 years old - and this was the very first of the 80,000 or so colour photographs which I have taken in the 60 years since then. The photo (if not the photographer) is wearing well - reversing Dorian Gray.
Above, hovering on blue introduces a link: click to go, move away to stay.
Saturday 11th October 2025
...guide to this site