Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Cohousing-L Digest, Vol 228, Issue 17

[Marilyn Seiler (marilynseiler72]

Sharon Villines,

I want to echo Denise's response to your shared changing perspective on
work participation by cohousing residents. It also resonated with me and my
experience of only ten years in cohousing.

A couple of statements really stuck out to me: "After years of studying
hours and finding motivations for others, I realized that the most
important thing was not the number of hours people worked. And it wasn’t my
job to motivate others. They moved in motivated or not." and "Generally,
everyone believes they are doing as much as they can."

This last statement reminds me of one St. Ignatius of Loyola says,
(paraphrased) "a favorable interpretation [by the recipient]should always
be given to the other's statement [or actions] and confusions should be
cleared up with understanding."

However, I would appreciate feedback and discussion on the increasing
number of members absent from the community for extended periods of time. I
would like to include members who are physically and mentally incapacitated
and unable to participate. They have adequate paid support but the paid
support does not participate in any community tasks or events except to
occasionally assist in getting the member to the event and remaining to
assist as necessary. *And*, that is another household that causes a hole in
the number of persons available to do the work and participate in
functions. It also adds work to the participating members in
many very small additional tasks we perform to assure the safety and
well-being of the member. I know that I would like to remain in my home
until I die, but is it fair to the Community to have a non-participating
member, maybe as long as 2-3 years? How do we as a Community address this
ever-increasing issue?

Marilyn Seiler
Oakcreek Community Cohousing


On Sun, Jan 15, 2023 at 5:16 AM <cohousing-l-request [at] cohousing.org> wrote:

> Date: Sat, 14 Jan 2023 06:05:39 -0600
>
From: denisetennen <denisetennen [at] centurylink.net>
> To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
> Subject: Re: Voluntary Community Participation
> Message-ID: <5435F647-56C3-4C79-B96A-7BEF7D87EF57 [at] centurylink.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain;       charset=utf-8
>
>
> Sharon Villines
>
> I love the perspective you shared vis-a-vis your changing perspective on
> work participation by cohousing residents. I?ve been living at Monterey
> Cohousing in Minnesota for nearly 27 years and I fully resonate with what
> you are saying!
>
> Denise Tennen
>