In the past, when I have been to the city I have felt sort of a disconnect between the excesses and fast living and my own life. I have wondered who was out of step - me or them. But this weekend was different - and the change was startling. We had annual meeting of our church and finances were the topic of the day. The church has been mostly living on money in investments and of course we all know what has happened there.
There was faithful conversation about how to support ourselves when we are dependent on the giving of people who are being pinched and the interest from investments. How do you respond to people sinking financially while asking for money to continue the church? Of course there were no easy answers. At one point a hospital chaplain had to leave because a (formally) well to do man in town felt he had no more options left and was going to leap off a building.
We try and be green and so there were not fancy printed material as in the past. I found it a little difficult to respond to resolutions with just a projected screen and memory. An adjustment for sure but a far cry better than the cases of paper used in the past.
They did give each congregation a book called, "Three Simple Rules: A practical manual guaranteed to improve your finances" by Theo Boers. I haven't started it yet my Mr. Greenjeans has and says it is good - and simple. It looks as if it is written where most people live - not for those with a lot of money.
I stopped by a clothing sale at my favorite store and found it to be very quiet even with the sale. Of course it also seemed that prices had been jacked up.
In this community of bloggers, financial concerns and future scenarios have been the norm for a while. We are used to the conversation. Watching a bunch of main steam folks come to this place en masse was a little disconcerting. People are waking up to the notion that this might not be a market gyration but part of a longer term problem, and they don't know what to do about it. It is perhaps a little overdue, but I suspect those of us who have been thinking about this for a while may need to have in person conversations to those who have just looked up from the feed trough.
Showing posts with label community. Show all posts
Showing posts with label community. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
A lawn mower as tselem* for community
When we went to graduate school, we closed down a small farm and sold most things off and fit our family of four + dogs and cats into a one way self-move. We traveled over a thousand miles to where we would live on a University campus for three years. (Note part of my decision to go to school where I did was that there were no pet restrictions - and I was fortunate to get into such a good school. Now that's what I call a good fit.)
At first we had asked for the smallest 3 bedroom place available but later realized that we had limits on how small a place we could live in very close proxmity to neighbors (under 900 sq ft). So after a few months we got a small cottage on campus where we would have our own yard. The university of course expected us to mow the lawns of the yard - as they did other families.
Very few people had fit a mower in with the self-move to university housing and none of us had money to go and buy one but after a while we learned about the community mower. This mower was housed with one family in one place and returned there when done. There was an informal word of mouth system to accessing it which included Jr. professors and such. As our first year ended, we were asked to house the mower becaue we had a shed with no doors. We found someone to take it when we left. The thing was an old beater and anyone who used it was also expected to work on it, as able.
I had always had an interest in community and I have thought of this mower while reading Sharon's Adapting in Place posts. This mower came to represent for me the way of life that is possible in intentional community. When you have community in this way the gross comsumption of everyone owning one of everything is short circuted.
Forming community is always intentional. If you are doing this with carpooling with co-workers or setting limits on the inlaw on the couch (a Sharon thing) you deliberately are working things out. Do you have things you share with other people? How far are people willing to take this concept?
*tselem is Hebrew for likeness or image where one thing comes to represent another.
At first we had asked for the smallest 3 bedroom place available but later realized that we had limits on how small a place we could live in very close proxmity to neighbors (under 900 sq ft). So after a few months we got a small cottage on campus where we would have our own yard. The university of course expected us to mow the lawns of the yard - as they did other families.
Very few people had fit a mower in with the self-move to university housing and none of us had money to go and buy one but after a while we learned about the community mower. This mower was housed with one family in one place and returned there when done. There was an informal word of mouth system to accessing it which included Jr. professors and such. As our first year ended, we were asked to house the mower becaue we had a shed with no doors. We found someone to take it when we left. The thing was an old beater and anyone who used it was also expected to work on it, as able.
I had always had an interest in community and I have thought of this mower while reading Sharon's Adapting in Place posts. This mower came to represent for me the way of life that is possible in intentional community. When you have community in this way the gross comsumption of everyone owning one of everything is short circuted.
Forming community is always intentional. If you are doing this with carpooling with co-workers or setting limits on the inlaw on the couch (a Sharon thing) you deliberately are working things out. Do you have things you share with other people? How far are people willing to take this concept?
*tselem is Hebrew for likeness or image where one thing comes to represent another.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Community
My blog has been mute for a few days because I've been cogitating on the idea of community. It is an idea that periodically grabs at me and insists on my attention. Sometimes this idea is focused on church and building community there, at other times I've thought about what it would be like to live in intentional community or an eco housing group. I've read materials from the neo-monastic movement which includes family units, and read a considerable amount about the Amish and lately I've discovered Transition Towns.
Today I am thinking about community in terms of the informal on-line relationships we have in the form of these blogs. Now, most folks could ride next to each other on public transit and never recognize each other, and when someone stops posting we have no way to reach out, but we share a lot about our passions. Those who care about the earth challenge each other stretch in ways we might not other wise do (I'm feeling a little warm right now in the late afternoon with no AC). The independence days group prepares to be self-sufficiet, shares tips and encouraging each other without the isolationist bunker mentality.
The Merriam Webster On-line dictionary defines community thus:
1: a unified body of individuals: as a: state, commonwealth b: the people with common interests living in a particular area; broadly : the area itself (the problems of a large community) c: an interacting population of various kinds of individuals (as species) in a common location d: a group of people with a common characteristic or interest living together within a larger society (a community of retired persons) e: a group linked by a common policy f: a body of persons or nations having a common history or common social, economic, and political interests (the international community) g: a body of persons of common and especially professional interests scattered through a larger society (the academic community)
Most(not all)of the posts I read and comment on are those who are at least cognizant of Peak Oil, Global Climate Change, doing what we can to Power Down and provide for ourselves and families and loved ones. This is where we meet the 1b,d,e,f,g of the defination of community.
In reading blogs today, two comments have caught my eye. One was on the food storage group posted by The Matriarch of the Ramping up blog http://rampingup.blogspot.com/ when she said she had read in a local paper about a
retired woman that installed solar panels and a windmill in her
yard to go off-grid. She thought right away, "She is one of US!"
The other I read at Frau's site where she posted 7 reasons for hope #7 was:
Lifeboats
"You, dear readers, are the lifeboats. Anyone developing sustainability libraries, skills and techniques, who have gardens and who use low-energy technologies, are the hope for the future. You will be able to teach your neighbors and families new and lighter ways to live. You may be able to save lives or prevent trees from being cut for wood. You will be able to make a difference."
This community had no borders; memebers move in and out without any expection of committment; and without electricity we would be lost to one another; but I do find great value in what people have spent their time and energy posting and I value it when others stop by to read what I'm spending time and energy on.
Gazing into the future is kind of scary right now and I'm glad to be doing it with thinking bloggers far and wide who are willing to do something about what they see. Besides someone needs to add levity cuz I've gone too mushy and sentemental.
Next, we need our own town where everyone is allotted acreage for whatever floats their boats (animals, gardens, ponds of fish, and forests)so we don't get lost if the electricity shuts off.
Today I am thinking about community in terms of the informal on-line relationships we have in the form of these blogs. Now, most folks could ride next to each other on public transit and never recognize each other, and when someone stops posting we have no way to reach out, but we share a lot about our passions. Those who care about the earth challenge each other stretch in ways we might not other wise do (I'm feeling a little warm right now in the late afternoon with no AC). The independence days group prepares to be self-sufficiet, shares tips and encouraging each other without the isolationist bunker mentality.
The Merriam Webster On-line dictionary defines community thus:
1: a unified body of individuals: as a: state, commonwealth b: the people with common interests living in a particular area; broadly : the area itself (the problems of a large community) c: an interacting population of various kinds of individuals (as species) in a common location d: a group of people with a common characteristic or interest living together within a larger society (a community of retired persons) e: a group linked by a common policy f: a body of persons or nations having a common history or common social, economic, and political interests (the international community) g: a body of persons of common and especially professional interests scattered through a larger society (the academic community)
Most(not all)of the posts I read and comment on are those who are at least cognizant of Peak Oil, Global Climate Change, doing what we can to Power Down and provide for ourselves and families and loved ones. This is where we meet the 1b,d,e,f,g of the defination of community.
In reading blogs today, two comments have caught my eye. One was on the food storage group posted by The Matriarch of the Ramping up blog http://rampingup.blogspot.com/ when she said she had read in a local paper about a
retired woman that installed solar panels and a windmill in her
yard to go off-grid. She thought right away, "She is one of US!"
The other I read at Frau's site where she posted 7 reasons for hope #7 was:
Lifeboats
"You, dear readers, are the lifeboats. Anyone developing sustainability libraries, skills and techniques, who have gardens and who use low-energy technologies, are the hope for the future. You will be able to teach your neighbors and families new and lighter ways to live. You may be able to save lives or prevent trees from being cut for wood. You will be able to make a difference."
This community had no borders; memebers move in and out without any expection of committment; and without electricity we would be lost to one another; but I do find great value in what people have spent their time and energy posting and I value it when others stop by to read what I'm spending time and energy on.
Gazing into the future is kind of scary right now and I'm glad to be doing it with thinking bloggers far and wide who are willing to do something about what they see. Besides someone needs to add levity cuz I've gone too mushy and sentemental.
Next, we need our own town where everyone is allotted acreage for whatever floats their boats (animals, gardens, ponds of fish, and forests)so we don't get lost if the electricity shuts off.
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