Sweat equity: Trust and Community | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: Rob Sandelin (robsanmicrosoft.com) | |
Date: Thu, 11 Aug 94 11:49 CDT |
As part of a posting on sweat equity William Johnson wrote: >Trust obviously _enhances_ social and business arrangements. But that seems >the less important point. IMHO, it is unwise to structure a system that >_only_ works when people deny themselves personal advantage for the common >good. A friend of mine, John Affolter, who has lived in and actively promoted intentional community for longer than I have been alive told me once that the measure of "community" within any living situation is how much the people involved can trust each other, and the level of personal sacrifice they are willing to make for the common good. One of the main thing I see people looking into cohousing are seeking is community. Yet that word, community, has no real concrete definition or criteria. I just read a rap against cohousing in a communities publication where a person was quoted as saying all they know about their cohousing neighbors is their meeting style. This person was disillusioned by the lack of "community". It seems to me that trust is a key to community. Willingness to give to the community of yourself and your things is another. Open honest communication and a willingness to learn and change make up other key ingredients of the bread called community. Applying all this to sweat equity, it would seem to me that if you are spending a lot of time creating and inventing "systems" for tracking and accountability of people, then perhaps your time might be better spent working on building community instead. From my experience, many of the communes I have visited have a high degree of trust and willingness of the members to give of themselves for the good of the whole. Their arrangements for sweat equity, or even work relationships, are simple and direct and much happens which is never scheduled or directed in any way because people see what needs to get done, they do it, and they feel great about it because they are willing to give and by giving of themselves they are being in community. Of course maybe cohousing really isn't community, its just a "more practical and convenient living arrangement". And if that quote, which comes from some of the leadership of the cohousing movement, describes your goals as a cohousing group, I wish you the best of luck getting people to commit to anything. It would probably be better just to hire help and assess the costs to everyone. Rob Sandelin Sharingwood Cohousing
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