Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Community size

[Ann Zabaldo (zabaldo]

Hi all!

In re:  The Diligencia

A little bit the same only different thought from moi — sometimes I sit with my 
elbow on my knee, my chin crunched on the upturned palm of my hand and ponder:  

Are we CRAZY?  Whoever gave us the idea we can run a $15 million dollar complex 
on the very part time work of 65 adults most of whom have full time jobs, some 
of whom have children at home, are caregivers of elderly parents, new moms n’ 
dads (very new!), newly weds in their first home … who said we could do this?  
How naive were we?

And then I remember:  Katie and Chuck.  That’s who.  And then I told a bunch of 
other people what they said. We all believed them.  And now look.  We’re doing 
it.  We don’t do it perfectly — we have some bumps and grinds.  But, truly, we 
do a pretty good job maintaining the physical fabric of the community altho’ it 
often seems a stretch.

I’m ever grateful for the retirees who devote an inordinate amount of time to 
the community.  But sometimes I wonder if the Diligencia are also part of the 
problem?  Maybe if we REALLY retired others would step into the space?  I 
dunno.  It's a possibility.  On the other hand — because I alway have more than 
one contradictory opinion at any time — when people don’t participate I just 
say some folks never really get the taste of the stone.  And that’s their loss. 
 They never really get the depth and boldness of what it means to live in 
community with all its warts and bad hair days.

My two cents on a lovely Saturday evening here in Washington, DC where the air 
temperature has finally dropped into the 60’s tonight.  (The temperature on 
Capitol Hill — that’s another story …)

After I watch this subtitled Danish murder mystery on the International 
Channel, I’m going to bed and dream about my new iPhone 6+ which I ordered at 
2:45 a.m. Friday morning after a frustrating 43 minutes of being bog down on 
the AT&T website.  I can’t wait to find that app that does the dishes and takes 
out the trash … 

Best—

Ann Zabaldo
Takoma Village
Washington, DC
Cohousing Collaborative, LLC
Falls Church, VA
703.688.2646


On Sep 13, 2014, at 9:34 PM, Jerry McIntire <jerry.mcintire [at] gmail.com> 
wrote:

> 
> Indeed it does say it all. Maraiah, that was the funniest thing I've heard
> in a long time. Made my day.
> 
> Jerry
> 
> On Sat, Sep 13, 2014 at 5:48 PM, Kay Wilson Fisk <kwilsonfisk [at] 
> comcast.net>
> wrote:
> 
>> 
>> Ah, yes, the Diligencia. That says it all.
>> 
>>>>> With a larger group, I think some people just figure
>> "somebody" -- Magic Elves??-- will replace the light bulb,
>> buy the toilet paper, weed the patio, deal with finances and
>> legalities, etc. And so far, "somebody" here does attend to
>> things, though we "somebodies" (a friend calls us the
>> Diligencia) wish we had more help!
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> _________________________________________________________________
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>> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Jerry McIntire
> Stone's Throw Ecovillage, in the heart of Wisconsin's beautiful Driftless
> region
> http://stonesthrowcommunity.wordpress.com/
> 1-608-637-8018
> _________________________________________________________________
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> http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L/
> 
> 



Best --

Ann Zabaldo
Takoma Village Cohousing
Washington, DC
Principal, Cohousing Collaborative, LLC
Falls Church VA
703-688-2646