Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: value of work

[Lynn Nadeau (welcome]

Dear Kay,
You shouldn't ever have to feel like you describe!! OK, maybe one day a 
year... But really, that sense of avoidance and outside looking in -- 
even as you are a contributing member of the community-- just feels 
unfair and wrong. 

I would hope you could send an open letter to the community, or have a 
discussion circle about this -- perhaps the scheduled revisitation of 
work credit is a good pretext. Your message is I participate, I care 
about community, and the way this is structured I'm cut out of one of the 
most important aspects of community: eating together. We need to find a 
way that I can be welcome at meals, without adding meal-work to my tasks. 
Don't ask IF, ask HOW. 
How can I be welcome at meals? It is very counterproductive to have a 
system that cuts out people who care about the community. Your changing 
it will be a gift to the whole community in the long run. 


Kay wrote:
Time I spent cooking was time I couldn't spend landscaping.  I quit 
cooking.
Since I couldn't afford our community's price for noncooks, I also quit
eating common meals... I find myself,...looking through the common house 
windows at other people eating. Most of the time I avoid the common house 
on nights I know there's a meal,
... I feel alienated. ...

Lynn Nadeau, RoseWind Cohousing
Port Townsend Washington (Victorian seaport, music, art, nature)
http://www.olypen.com/sstowell/rosewind
http://www.ptguide.com

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