Cohousing-L Mailing List: Article by John Robbins about "Thrive"

[Fred H Olson (fholson]

Marty Maskall <mmaskall [at] pacbell.net>
is the author of the message below.  It was posted by
Fred, the Cohousing-L list manager <fholson [at] cohousing.org>
after deleting a copy of the web version of the August issue of
Yes Magazine that did not convert well to text.  It can be seen at
http://s.coop/w3ex   which goes to:
http://www.yesmagazine.org/newsletters/2012/august12/non/august12_web.html?icl=email_august12&ica=H_html

Yes magazine has long written about cohousing and related topics.

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

Hi -- I just read a moving article by John Robbins about the movie
Thrive and why he has disassociated himself with it.   The article is
in this month's issue of "Yes" magazine (see email below).   John was
the keynote speaker at the Cohousing Conference.  John said he was
glad to be associated with the Cohousing movement.  As you can see by
the statement below, he mentioned community multiple times.

-- Marty Maskall, www.FolsomEcoHousing.org, (916) 967-2472


Here's the link to the article:  http://bit.ly/JohnRobbinsThrive

John says "As one of the signers, evolutionary biologist Elisabet
Sahtouris, writes that, "without community, we do not exist, and
community is about creating relationships of mutual benefit. It does
not just happen with flowers and rainbows, and no taxes."

The signers of the statement of disassociation from Thrive do not deny
the evil in the world. It is here and it is real. But as one of the
signers, Paul Hawken, writes, "The suffering and the despoliation of
the world cannot be healed by the us/them divisions that inform
Thrive."

Our hope is not blind. We see the enormous peril our world is in
today. Ours is the hope that remains open to miracles while investing
the sweat and perseverance to lend the universe a hand in creating
those miracles. It is the hope that is borne from knowing that it is
far too late, and our situation far too serious, to indulge in the
luxuries of pessimism, paranoia, and finger-pointing.

The state of the world is perilous. But it is not too late to love,
not too late to work to realize our dreams, and not too late to
believe in ourselves and in each other.

In the end, we are all in this together. Each step you take to lessen
the amount of fear in yourself and the world brings us closer to a
world reflective of the beauty that exists--sometimes buried and
other times apparent--in each of us. Every act you take that
increases the amount of trust and compassion in your relationships
helps us move from a world created by privilege to a world created by
community."