Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Senior only vs intergenerational community living

[Fred H Olson (fholson]

> On Aug 15, 2019, at 1:19 PM, Dave Cortright via Cohousing-L <cohousing-l [at]
> cohousing.org> wrote:

> The Harvard Grant Study found that the biggest factor in happiness and health
> is quality relationships with others. And the only way to have true quality
> connections with others is daily and face to face.

Sharon Villines replied:
> More and more research is discovering that this is not true.
> ...
> With Internet connectivity, the world of relationships enlarges.

A lot depends on how you interpret "true" (in both uses above).

Becca and I a planning to give a presentaion on cohousing at the UU
congregation in Duluth, MN in September.  In preparation I've been
planning to include a few words on other kinds of community of which
there are many.  The definition of community that I am using these days
is a place, organization or situation that facilitates the formation
of ongoing substantal relationships.  Some communities are capable of
fostering relationships better than others. Faith communities tend to
have the limitation of once per week contact and their large size may
limit effectiveness. Work communities, when they happen, vary widely
and of course depend on continued employment of participants.
Cohousing-L even serves as a community of sorts - some of us have long
term connections here.  I think face-to-face tends to be better and
intergenerational cohousing is one of the best kinds of community, if
you can achieve it (which we have not).

Fred

--
Fred H. Olson  Minneapolis,MN 55411  USA        (near north Mpls)
     Email:        fholson at cohousing.org      612-588-9532
My Link Pg: http://fholson.cohousing.org