Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: What creates community? -- Evolving a Culture

[Mmariner (Mmariner]

I liked Buzz's post.

I sense that eating together is such a big thing because it's a common
denominator.  Whether we're carnivores or vegetarians or sugar junkies, we
experience some community by preparing the meal and then sitting down
together.

Dinners are a beginning.  If we can sit down together and exchange ideas and
feelings in between mouthfuls of food, we may begin to encounter each other
on deeper levels. (Once in awhile, at least!)

Groups of people inherently create a culture together - culture in the
largest sense -- a system of behaviors, languages, proclivities, avoidances,
rituals.  The culture need not be homogeneous or oppressive - it should
nurture diversity and variety within itself.  

In my community I want us to evolve our own culture to a high degree,
eventually including:

-  Creating dances and music and theater and arts & crafts.  We all need to
express ourselves.
-  Synthesizing a "universal" community spirituality within which each
person's individual spiritual beliefs and practices can be maintained.  For
instance, solstice/equinox ceremonies, etc.
-  Evolve ceremonies for passing through the stages of life - birth,
childhood, puberty, marriage, etc.
-  Cooperate in economic endeavors.
-  Support youngsters and elders and "differently abled" into the fullest
possible community participation.


The site and buildings constitute the stage.  What we do on the stage is what
matters. 

=Mike M=
Planet Boulder