Cohousing-L Mailing List: Diversity

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

I've published this story before but assuming the list readership 
changes and the new people are the audience, I'll post it again:

We are in DC, the home of the World Bank. During the demonstrations two 
(?) years ago, we had residents who worked at the world bank, who were 
demonstrating against the world bank, who were defending the world bank 
from the demonstrators, AND who were funded by the world bank.

Interestingly the differences between all of these people in terms of 
their world views caused much less (If any) conflict in the community 
than other cultural and generation related expectations such as:

1. People sleeping unannounced overnight on the sofa in the 
commonhouse. (Emergencies, okay; sacking out, not okay.)
2. People leaving clean sheets in the guest rooms piled on the bed, not 
folded.
3. Serving dinner an hour (or two) late.
4. Relaxed security or tight security.
5. Children present in meetings.
6. Serving dinners buffet, not sit down, and the reverse.
7. No tablecloths.
8. Serving pizza on paper towels instead of plates.
9. Children not in bed by 8:00.
10. Music playing at all social events.
11. Storing furniture and boxes in front of units.
12. Not planting the flower boxes in front of your unit.
13. Hanging or not  hanging flags of various kinds -- Buddhist prayer 
flags, American Flags, happy flags, etc.
14. Displaying political posters.
15. Taping notices to doors and walls.

I once knew a couple who divorced because she liked to eat three meals 
a day and he only ate one, very late in the evening. Literally, in the 
end, that is what created their inability to live together in harmony. 
They just couldn't fill each other's emotional needs concerning meals 
-- a major ingredient in daily life.

While I applaud diversity and enjoy having neighbors who are different 
from me, it is hard in a living situation to make all the ends meet. 
And people do grow to be more like each other if they rub elbows long 
enough.

Sharon
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Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org