Cohousing-L Mailing List: Bio

[Lawrence A Hogue (lhogue]

Hi, my name is Larry Hogue.  This is a response to the request for bios. =
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I've been lurking on this list for a week or so now, and find it=20
encouraging and informative.  Right now my wife and I are a long way from=
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being in co-housing or an intentional community, but we've been talking=20
about it for a long time with friends around the country.  The main=20
problem is deciding where we want to live!  It's good to see that there's=
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a network of people out there pursuing this and offering resources for=20
"newbies."
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Name: Larry Hogue
Birthdate: 3/11/61
E-mail: lhogue [at] selway.umt.edu
S-mail: 1515 Jackson St., Missoula, MT 59802
Phone: On request.
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Married to Diane Willcox
Family:  Son, Joshua, age 2 (Nickname "Destructo-man"). Various other=20
people located hither and yon (trying to get all of them hither).
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Education (where, what):   BA Occidental College, Los Angeles.  Currently=
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at work on an MFA in creative writing at the University of Montana
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Occupation:  Writer, most recently published in _Where the Heart Is: A=20
Celebration of Home_, a collection of over 100 short essays.  (BTW,=20
people on this list might want to check it out. Ed. Julienne Bennett and=20
Mimi Luebbermann, intro by Mollie Katzen, other writers include Linda=20
Hasselstrom and Dan Millman, and a percentage of the profits goes to East=
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Bay Habitat for Humanity -- $80,000, they hope!)
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Oh! You wanted to know what I do for _money_.  Certainly not writing=20
(tho' maybe someday)!  Right now I have a teaching assistantship which=20
nearly pays our rent for ten months of the year; Diane brings home the=20
major bacon working for the non-profit downtown association. =20
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Community (if any):  spread across the country
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Location:  Northwest, maybe Nor Cal.
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Stage of Development:  Extra-ethereal=20
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What I do for fun:  Read, hike, spend too much time on the internet (this=
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summer anyway), listen to music (Mozart to Melissa Etheridge to Madonna)=20
(Bruce Cockburn and Kate Bush too, but their names didn't alliterate with=
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the first three), dream utopian fantasies
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Favorite thing about community:  Being able to show up on someone's=20
doorstep unannounced.
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Worst thing about community:  I grew up in a small northern California=20
town and I couldn't wait to escape the gossip, the pettiness, the way=20
politics were given over to real estate people, and the narrow-minded=20
provincialism (as I perceived it at age 18).  I want a manageable-sized=20
community without all of those things; Missoula's pretty good as far as=20
that goes.
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If I was in charge, I would:  (Macro) Get people out of their cars and=20
into communities where they could work, shop, eat, and live within=20
walking or biking distance. I know that's an oft-repeated theme, but the=20
car really does seem to be responsible for so much of the waste an=20
alienation we have.  And, as Paul Hawken said in _The Ecology of=20
Commerce_, after you account for all the time you put into your car,=20
you're really only going about 5 mph anyway.  (The second and last book=20
plug in t=E8is "bio" -- read it if you haven't, pass it to a friend if you=
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have!)
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Micro: Keep "Mad About You" on Thursday nights so we can watch it and=20
"ER" and still have the TV on only one night a week.