Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: TV-Free America

[Ann Barbarow (abarbaro]

At 11:32 AM 4/15/97 -0500, Tom Nelson Scott wrote:

>I'm about to invest more time and money into research on cohousing
>communities and ecovillages. Before I try to develop one or move into
>an existing coho/ecovillage, I'd like to know what kind of community
>I'm getting into. What are the group dynamics? How does a commonhouse
>work? Should I expect TV to play a central role in developing the
>sense of community, or are there more evolutionary activities that I
>can participate in? What might those activities be?


IMHO, you really can't count on it being anything like you expect. Each
person going into a community has ideas and preconceptions that are either
exceeded or not met. The person most resistant to ever cooking in the Common
House could discover that it is the funnest thing she ever did. The person
who thought she would spend every evening hanging out with her neighbors
might discover she has a much higher need for solitude than she knew. The
less you are hung up on "what it's going to be like" and the more you are
able to go with the flow, the better you will be able to adjust to co-ho
living and make it the community you want.