Cohousing-L Mailing List: multiple communities (was: Re:: Diversity of Cohousing)

[Howard Landman (howard]

>> One point which keeps coming up for me is: Why are people who don't want
>> to give any of their time to the community in cohousing in the first
>> place?
 
> Because they want to live in a community that is also connected to the
> larger community. They don't see cohousing as their only community or the
> limits of their community. It is the place they live and they live with
> their neighbors in a closer relationship that they can live elsewhere. But
> they don't want cohousing to limit their involvement in the larger community
> or other activities..

Bingo.  I belong to a lot of communities, and many of them are global.
The community of electronic engineers.  The community of mathematicians.
The community of scientists.  The community of songwriters.  The community
of poets.  The community of Aikidoists.  The community of polyamorists.
The community of Go players.  I could go on.  Environmental concerns are
often global as well.

Then there are the larger local communities, like Martinez Park
Neighborhood, City of Fort Collins, Larimer County, State of Colorado,
USA.

And there is the smaller community of the family.  I have 5 children,
including twins just this last January.

Each of these communities has some rights to my time.  I don't necessarily
want the cohousing community I live in to eat up 90% of my "community"
energy, leaving little for all these other communities.  Some weeks, I
would rather be translating Rilke or attending a conference on combinatorial
game theory or playing with the babies than attending committee meetings.
And so I do.

I love my neighbors, but they're not the only thing in this world
that I love, and I'm not going to act as if they were.

        Howard A. Landman
        River Rock Commons
        Fort Collins, CO
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