Personal Crusade | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
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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