Personal Crusade
From: tommoench (tommoenchaol.com)
Date: Sat, 26 Feb 94 11:13:36 EST
I am on a personal crusade to expunge a particular word from the vocabulary
of our cohousing group members and now my crusade goes to the NET.    


I Do Not Live in a Unit 

Many years ago I was watching TV when a commercial blared at me,

"Due to overstocking Bill Fred Ford has 5000 units too many.  Our loss is
your gain.  We must move these units out by Sunday to make way for the new
models.  They are priced to sell so come on in to Bill Fred Ford where we
will accept any reasonable offer.  Come on down - open to midnight now
through Sunday."

I was struck by the odd reference to units.  (Going to my big and trusty
Webster's Third New International Dictionary, the word unit  is defined as
one of the commonly more or less repetitive sections combined in assembling a
manufactured article   and is derived from the Latin unitas meaning "one".) 
To me they were cars - the second biggest purchase I'd ever make, after my
house - a machine often possessed of its own personality.  To me it was
unimaginable that I would go to a car dealer and say,  "I would like to look
at one of your units."  Yet unit perfectly captured the attitude of car
dealers - notorious for their lack of customer focus, intent on commissions,
dedicated to  selling the inventory.
Has a similar attitude befallen WCG?  During project development we took on
the jargon of architects and the mantle of developers, calling our future
homes, units.  It was easy.  It gave us a simple way to talk to the
architects, builders, subcontractors and each other.   We could distinguish
between all those repetitive buildings being manufactured around the site. 
It was our state of mind.  From it, I believe, we formed a habit, a bad
habit.

Most of us, everyday, continue to talk about units, our own or the need to
sell another's.  Each time, the impersonal sound of this developer vocabulary
clangs in my ears.  In contrast, Websters defines, house  as a structure
intended or used for human habitation: a building that serves as one's
residence or domicile especially as contrasted with a place of business.   It
appears to be derived from the Old English hus  meaning "house" and hiwan 
meaning "members of a household."  Similarly, home is defined as the house
and grounds with their appurtenances habitually occupied by a family.  It
derives from the Old English ham meaning village, country, dwelling, home. 
Now that our houses and homes are real I can clearly state that I do not live
in a unit.  I bought shares to my house with an intent to create a home with
Ann and Theora.  When I walk the grounds I see a carriage house with studios
and 1-2 bedroom homes, not an apartment building.  When I pass the fourplex I
see attached townhouses.  The duplexes are houses to me.  And there is our
common house, not our common unit.  
In keeping with our goal to be an owner-occupied cohousing community, I want
to attract people who can invest in a home.  By continuing to refer to our
homes as units - a term more consistent with apartments and transitional
housing - I feel we will guarantee ourselves a stream of renters and boarders
instead of qualified buyers.  As wonderful the balance our renters bring, I
feel we need to move our individual and collective mindsets past the selling
of units to the concept of selling shares in a community.  

I want to encourage new people to make their homes here; to become part of
our cooperative endeavors where faces are familiar, neighborliness is
spontaneous, and kids are joyous and free; to buy shares in this community
where privacy and connectedness co-exist as a matter of personal choice; to
experience the peace of mind that comes from mutual respect and the honoring
of differing viewpoints and beliefs; to share in the experience where
personal growth is not a weekend sojourn but an everyday challenge and
reward.  I want to move beyond creating my comfortable individual castle to
an emerging hamlet of hearts where all our inner warriors, magicians,
tricksters, lovers and sacred lords and ladies exist in each others's
radiance.

Acknowledgements:  I wish to thank Jim Burford for his ongoing encouragement
and editing, Ann for her trickster who spins me until my direction is clear
and Tedd for his helpful suggestions and perspective.
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