The fire of oak logs The fire of oak logs which burned day and night for six months became the focal point of our family life. ...It is inevitable that the English word "home" cannot be translated directly into French. The nearest equivalent in French is the word foyer, the hearth. Lawrence Wylie, Village in the Vaucluse Thermal Delight in Architecture homefirefamilylanguage
Doing community There is a Japanese catchphrase, community suru, literally "making" or "doing" community. I will never forget the queasy feeling that came over me when I first heard that term, phrased as if community were a kind of event. Hold an event, bring people together, get people who might otherwise never meet to interact. It's a wonderful thought. I have nothing against events per se. However, if they are not spontaneous and voluntary, they will not last. That is my objection to the keep-it-lively concept of community. The perception of community as event stems, I think, from a yearning for the festivals and rituals that once flourished in rural communities in Japan. But those events occurred precisely because a community existed, not the other way around. Toshiharu Naka, Two Cycles Togetherness connectionurbanism