Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: New View as a model of possibility

[Fred H Olson (fholson]

Lia Olson <liajo [at] sbcglobal.net>  is the author of the message below.
It was posted by Fred Olson, (no relation), the Cohousing-L list manager

NOTE: Since I needed to repost this message I chose to delete the very
long bottom quote and looked for a a short excerpt to quote at the top.
The sentence I chose did not flow very well out of context so
edited a few connecting words (in square brackets).

In general I do not like to do any editorial changes to the list messages
(and geneally do not have the opportuinty unless messages are held for
various technical reasons like size. ( I do divert a few personal and off
topic messages.) In this case I decided to make an exception.

Fred


Lavinia Weissman <subscriptions [at] workecology.com> wrote (slightly edited
by Fred ) on 26 Apr:

> Adopting cohousing in the US is ...[more of] a transition ...
> [than] ...  countries [like] ... Denmark and Sweden ...
> [which] are built on a value of social capital we don't have
> in this country.

--------------------  FORWARDED MESSAGE FOLLOWS --------------------

Your very thought provoking letter made consider the imbalances in our
social structures in new ways.

  One concerns the fact that that our best efforts to support family and
community (immaturely developed as it is in the US) generally leads us to
cogitate endlessly about how to provide stimulation and nurturing for
children, but only in narrow circles does it lead to much dialogue about
providing the same support in the latter part of life.  We don't do a
stellar job of the former, but at least it's on our radar as a worthy
endeavor.  The truth is, however, we actually need a humane environment in
every stage of life in order to fulfill our human potential.  When I was a
single mother, it occurred to me that to protect a mother is to protect
the child, because how well can a vulnerable child do if his or her source
of stability is ill, dying, stressed or absent in order to earn a living.
No one is an island, and each person's well-being is enhanced by the
well-being of neighbors, family members, friends and members of the
greater community.  Maybe we would do better if the enlarged our scope of
our laudable 'child-centered' focus and became people centered.  We
certainly wouldn't support social structures that isolate elders and
diminish the quality of their later years.  How nice to hear more about
some Scandinavian countries are doing.

  Lia