spirit
Ordinariness
Flight of the soot sprites
The ancient fire spirit who lived in the hearth
The garden is as central to the concept of an Islamic home as the hearth is to the European home. It is interesting, then, that the hearth-fire in old traditions has a similar association with the life of the inhabitants of the house.
Commonly, the fire of the hearth was not allowed to go out. It was carefully covered with ashes each night at curfew so that a few selected embers would survive until morning. (In fact, the word "curfew" originated from the French word for cover-the-fire—couvre-feu.) Raglan comments that "the alarm and horror felt if the hearth-fire went out are out of all proportion to the inconvenience caused" by the need to relight it.
Retained as a quality
Thermal information is not differentiated in our memory; rather it is retained as a quality, or underlying tone, associated with the whole experience of the place. It contributes to our sense of the particular personality, or spirit, that we identify with that place. In remembering the spirit of a place, we can anticipate that if we return, we will have the same sense of comfort or relaxation as before.
Roaming and capricious
Now I sometimes wonder whether the current of utility has not become too strong and whether there would be sufficient opportunity for a full life if the world were emptied of some of the useless things that give it spiritual significance; in other words, whether our conception of what is useful may not have become too narrow to be adequate to the roaming and capricious possibilities of the human spirit.
My Neighbor Totoro
A Film by Hayao MiyazakiSpirited Away
A Film by Hayao MiyazakiAvatar: The Last Airbender
A SeriesThe Legend of Korra
A Series
Questions to ask on a new job search
The role and expectations
- What does this job entail?
- What's driving the hire?
- What are the biggest challenges?
- What scope is there to do x, y, z?
- How/when/why would you consider hiring me to be successful?
- What does progression from here look like?
- What's the biggest mistake I could make?
The wider business
- Can you tell me a bit about the company?
- What about the culture?
- How does diversity, equity, and inclusion play into this?
- What's the most exciting thing on the company horizon?
- What's been the impact of COVID-19 on company finances/strategy?
- What are the best and worst things about working here?
Day to day
- What's the size/structure of the team I'd be around/have reporting to me?
- Which other people would I work most closely with?
- What technologies/tools would I work with?
- What could I do that would make your life easier?
The practical bits
- What salary are you offering for this role?
- Additional package/benefits
- How do you approach distributed working, and is there scope for this?
- What timescales are you hoping for?
- Holiday
- Job title
Give yourself an extra shot: Is there anything I've said today that makes you hesitate?