Cohousing-L Mailing List: Class in Cohousing, etc.

[Mac Thomson (mac]

A couple of weeks ago I said that having corporations involved in cohousing
might not be a bad thing in terms of making cohousing available to the
masses.  That seemed to set off a political debate which I thought was best
taken up elsewhere - not on coho-L.  But having just read the digests
containing the messages from Tony Rocco, Rowena, Barry Krusch, Anne, Max,
Karp & and others, I have changed my mind.  Not because I think that we're on
the brink of getting the great political questions of the past century solved
and everyone to consense on the solution, but because we've gotten to know
who we are a bit better.

In our little cohousing group here in Durango, we spend some time on business
issues and some time just getting to know each other better (building
community).  I think that it's been good for the list to do some of the same.
 Like Tony R., I've been getting the sense that to a certain extent, if you
don't embrace Marx, you're not "one of us".  I now feel that there's a much
greater diversity of beliefs represented on this list and I therefore feel
more a part of it.

SLIGHT ASIDE
When my wife and I decided that we wanted to live in community, we visited
numerous intentional communities and felt that, for the most part, there was
too much of a "poverty mentality".  You needed to be poor to have community,
be happy, and be "correct".  We much more believe that happiness doesn't have
much to do with material wealth (once a very low minimum is exceeded), be a
person rich or poor.  Happiness can in part be achieved through community.

When we came across the idea of cohousing, we felt that we had found (and
still do) the type of community that would work for us: "holding no ideology
or spirituality in common other than the desire to live in a more
cooperative, friendly, and ecologically sound neighborhood."  I hope that as
cohosing grows, it remains open to all and doesn't "get co-opted" by any
particular ideology or spirituality.

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Scott Crowley:  Why the incredible intolerance?!
-*-*-*-*-*-*-

P.S.  Sorry about just saying "David said" rather than "David Mandel said". 
I should know better.

P.P.S.  There may be others of you, like me (vocabularily challenged), who
have wondered what "anomie" means.  I finally looked it up after seeing it in
Judith Wisdom's posts over and over again.  According to Webster's New
Collegiate, it means:  1)"a state of society in which normative standards of
conduct and belief are weak or lacking";  2)"a similar condition in an
individual commonly characterized by disorientation, anxiety, and isolation".
 Neat word.  Thanks Judith.

    Mac Thomson                         San Juan Cohousing
    Mac [at] HappyValley.com           Durango, Colorado

  "Circumstances are the rulers of the weak;
          they are but the instruments of the wise."
                        - Samuel Lover


--Sent from HappyValley FirstClass BBS 904.246.9255