Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: coffee shop community?? / levels of involvement

[Fred H. Olson (fholson]

On Sun, 30 Apr 2000, John Greene, Nancy Lowe greenelowe [at] mindspring.com
wrote:
..
> [due to work] ... I don't
> have much time, either.  So I haven't made real intimate connections, and
> at times I've felt a bit guilty or inadequate or something because of that.
> ...
> I like just being in the
> vicinity of so many other people whom I know well, even when I'm not
> interacting much. 
> ...
> JOHN GREENE
> Lake Claire Coho
> Atlanta, GA

See John's complete message at 
http://csf.Colorado.EDU/cohousing/2000/msg00775.html

John, thanks for your interesting comments.  Your comments bring to mind a
loosely associated observation from my visits to Scandanavian cohousing
last summer.

Cohousing is a long term commitment and over time people's lives change
and at different times different levels and kinds of involvement in the
community are possible and reasonable.  John, someday maybe you'll find
time to be more involved with your neighbors.

The cohousing community Fardknappen in central Stockholm is unusual in
that it is specifically for people over 40 years old who dont have
dependents living with them.  They do get criticized for this from people
who feel excluded but there are other communities they can join.  The
folks who started Fardknappen wanted to concentrate on people in the
'second half of life'.  BTW they have children around - visiting grand
children.

They find that their members  naturally cluster into three
subcategories.
a) Those that are still working who are busier and less involved in the
   community generally but have more income, bring vitality and
   connections from their work life to the community.
b) Healthy, active retired folks who have more time but less money
   and can be major contributors to community activities.
c) Older retired folks who have some health problems that limit
   what they can do for the community and may benefit from the aid of
   their neighbors in coping with life.

So people bring / get different things to/from the community over a long
time scale keyed to the human life cycle.  I found this understanding of
community interesting. 

Fred

--
Fred H. Olson  fholson [at] cohousing.org    Minneapolis,MN   55411
(612)588-9532  Amateur radio: WB0YQM          List manager of:
Cohousing-L and Nbhd-tc (Twin Cities Neighborhood issues list)
More info:   http://www.mtn.org/~fholson/sig-detail.htm