Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: common house meals

[Racheli&John (jnpalme]

** Reply to note from "Elizabeth Stevenson" <tamgoddess [at] home.com> Tue, 17 
Apr 2001 20:30:06 -0700
>From Racheli

I agree with Liz: One of the elements of the common meals efforts
is that it's an *extensive and continuous* effort - much more
so than other types of community work. 
In fact, it's such a large effort, that unless it was very central
to the community experience it might not be worth it...

I was pondering some more the question why *I* might be resentful 
if other people got to eat on a regular basis without doing the work.  
The reason has to do with the following:
 I have been the cook in my household for many many years.  Even
though, on the everage, I like to cook more than most - when it's
something of an unrelenting nature (people always want to be fed!)
it wears one out.  At this point, I'm ready to cook for people (other
than my own family) if they cook for me.  This isn't a statement of
principle, it's the reality of someone who has cooked for over
a quarter of a century without ever getting a sabbatical! :)  
(I'm including in the term "cook" the related activities of shopping 
for groceries, planning meals, and doing some of the cleaning - I think 
that often the mere chopping of vegetables is the easier part of the 
process).

 A more abstract point, and not a central one to this
discussion, but which still has some validity:  IMO it's important
for people to do various things (even though in general I don't
think we should coerce them to branch out...), and not fall into
the trap of over-specializing.  People who think they can't cook,
might be surprised to find out that it can be fun, people who never
thought they could relate to growing plants might discover 
otherwise, and so on.  (This is especially so because doing work
with others is often more fun than doing it alone).
Also, since many of the tasks in different areas can be done
with different people, it gives each one of us a chance to potentially
bond with some of our community members which we might
not have much of a relationship with otherwise. - Again, this last one
isn't meant to justify a mandatory arrangements, but to point out
that having people doing more than the one thing they like most
is a good thing.

Hope I'm making sense :)
R.





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