Community
“We
have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only
solution is love and that love comes with community.”
Dorothy
Day
I wonder who you consider your community. Who is in, who is out? Is it
large, is it small? How intimate is it? A friend and I are
contemplating, and have been for decades, the possibility of
developing a cooperative co-housing community. There are only two of
us, and even so, our ideas are light years different. Think what it
would be like to try to get ten or twelve people to agree on one
vision, and then concentrate their efforts on making it happen. That
requires commitment from all, and a singular focus. It means
fund-raising, choosing a type of housing everyone finds agreeable,
looking for a site, finding the right contractor, figuring out how to
balance the various levels of financial capability. At each step,
consensus is required. Will it be a community organized around
service, around mutual support, around shared space and housing,
around an ideology of ecology, spirituality or social justice—what
sort of community would it be? What level of day-to-day time and
energy would be required from each participant? How would you solve problems, resolve differences? There's a lot to consider.
When I was twenty-five,
or even forty-five, I would have jumped into such a project like a
mad, fierce kangaroo. I would have rounded up a crowd, called a
meeting, drawn up an organizational chart, assigned duties, and had
this thing rolling without even breaking a sweat. But as we age, we
slow down. We still keep busy, but everything seems to take longer,
and we feel tired faster. We have less need to prove anything, or to
push any cause, or to go to the lengths necessary to cajole and
convince someone else to share our vision. It is not so much that we
have less energy as it is quieter energy, slower energy, more sedate
energy. At this point in my life, I just want to live simply, among
people I love, and who love me. I want to do my share, give what I
can, and help when I'm able. To me, that's what community means. It's
not hard, it's not driven. It's comforting, and stimulating, and
safe, both physically and psychologically. I wonder what community
means to you, and whether you have it.
In the Spirit,
Jane
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