Cohousing-L Mailing List: conference & monkey siren

[Denise Meier and/or Michael Jacob (dmmj]

> 
> >> For me, the most community-building and spiritual dancing at the conference
> >> happened on Saturday night. Go Monkey Siren!
> >
> >        I'll second that!  I had a great time and was very impressed by
> >Monkey Siren.
> 
> While the closing ceremony inspired so much enthusiastic interchange, I'm
> left wondering what in the ....ah I can't think of a non-religious term
> here.... is the Monkey Siren. So far we have two positive responses and no
> nays. Could someone share with all of us the details?

Well, if you weren't there, you just wouldn't understand; you really just 
had to experience it...it was incredible!

All right, just kidding; it was a band. A really great band, and we once
again had proof positive that cohousers like to party. Even our closet
Republican was out there on the floor boogying. 

Of course, I'm sure there were people who weren't boogying, and who may
not have even liked the music, or skipped the whole thing. But the fact is
that it was an optional party, and the closing ceremony was, well, the
closing ceremony, lending a significance and an "officialness"  to it that
in my opinion too, made religious/spiritual content inappropriate.

There are different levels of involvement in the cohousing scene, where
different types of self-expression are acceptable, IMHO. In your own
cohousing community, the group can and does decide what is acceptable
"ritual" for your group. You may end up affecting your resale value, but 
each community makes that decision themselves. Sure, I'd hate to see 
some wacko start a Jonestown-style cohousing community, but I'm frankly 
not too worried about that happening, and if it does, we'll burn that 
bridge when we get to it.

But when presenting ourselves as a national movement, we have a
responsibility to keep the movement open and non-exclusive. Imposing new
age spirituality (which I am personally very into, so don't get me wrong)
is as inappropriate as beginning our plenaries with the Lord's prayer
would have been.