Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Multiple chemical sensitivity

[Racheli Gai (racheli]

I'd add to what Sharon says that some things that at some point in time 
seem like a "cause",
can become eventually part of life which isn't designated as such.  For 
example: many communities,
I suspect, take on themselves the task of building houses which are 
handicapped -accessible.
Yes, there are laws in place to enforce some level of this, but by now 
I think our consciousness
has evolved to a point that making extra efforts to accommodate 
wheel-chairs and such doesn't
seem like a "cause", but has been assimilated into a fairly mainstream 
outlook of what spaces,
public and otherwise, should be.  This is regardless of whether the 
group has a handicapped
person(s) among its members.  I'm sure that a couple of decades ago 
this wasn't the case.

My point is that what gets marked as a "cause" is that which hasn't 
been assimilated (yet?) into
enough people's consciousness, and that this is an ever-shifting state 
of affairs.  Which isn't
to say that on every issue there is a change, or that a change is 
always in a predictable
direction.
R.


> On Jul 28, 2005, at 7:16 PM, Becky Weaver wrote:
>
> > What level of sensitivity do your community members have (mild - 
> > moderate - severe)?
> > [snip] Do most cohousing-friendly people take a fragrance-free policy 
> > in stride? I'm trying to develop a sense of perspective.
>
> I think these two sentences go together -- some communities may have 
> no members who are fragrance sensitive. Is it important for that 
> community to be fragrance free?
>
> I think it is much better to be "fragrance sensitive." Setting a 
> policy that the community is fragrance free will make the "fragrance 
> unaware" feel very paranoid because they it will not be natural for 
> them.
>
> If you have people who are fragrance or chemical sensitive, then as a 
> community you can determine how far you can go in accommodating them. 
> We have several people who are very sensitive and some not so 
> sensitive and some who believe that the chemicals are negatively 
> affecting all of us but only some are aware of this. We only use 
> cleaning supplies and markers in the commonhouse that are fragrance 
> free, environmentally friendly.
>
> We don't have a policy about people wearing fragrances but I'm sure 
> people have modified their behavior voluntarily. On the whole, more 
> people are aware of this.
>
> One of the things that I think separates cohousing from ecovillages, 
> for example, is that cohousers tend not to form around "issues". While 
> some people will come to the community with a commitment to various 
> practices or convictions, in the end, communities do what works for 
> them. A cohousing community is in the end a good place to live for 
> those who live there. It isn't a school or political movement formed 
> to convince the world of anything. The aim is community and its 
> relationship to other communities, etc. but not specifically to 
> advocate a particular cause unless that community has decided to take 
> it on.
>
> So my answer would be, how do the people in your community feel about 
> this?
>
> Sharon
> -----
> Sharon Villines
> Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
> http://www.takomavillage.org
>
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