Day number 2
So, started using a safety pin to hold up my pants. Yay.
In other news, the boy (W) has me reading this book called Life Liberty Happiness by Claude Lewenz. It's about life in a village, a modern village.
Basically, it's about an end to being viewed as a consumer and a beginning to being viewed as a citizen, participant in community, having a high quality of life from birth to death (kids can roam about safely and the elderly aren't shipped off to die in some nursing home), and an emphasis on beauty rather than commercialism and mass production.
I absolutely love this idea and am becoming more enamored with it. Before I met W, I had visited some internet friends down in Jersey. They were involved in the poly community down there and had some friends who built a house together and lived in it. So, there were several adults and a few kids living in one house sharing the responsibilities. I loved this idea and thought it was absolutely fantastic. Growing up, it was often just me and my parents who both worked (my dad retired though when I was in like 7th grade). A few times we had people living with us and at times it was fun. We helped some people out who needed it. The most memorable was when my cousin and her 2 daughters moved in with us. It was fun having little ones around, even though we had to be careful about her ex coming to find them. I liked having the little ones around as it added more life into the house. Even now, my parents still have someone who is not family living with them. We lived in an area where you could let the kids go out and play and run around in the streets because there were so few cars and when they did come by, they had to be slow (dirt roads and windy, narrow paved roads kinda enforce that).
The problem with this is that it's still part of the commercialized state where you have to drive everywhere. My parents home is on the very outskirts of my town with not much around it. We had a pond, and 2 restaurants that were pricey for say a teen or a young adult. A mile or so walk over a dangerous (I almost got t-boned on that) overpass can get you to the industrial park or to the convenience store and a few other small shops and one of those family chains. That stuff mostly came after I moved out. What was there was moot anyways since you would have to cross a very dangerous overpass (they have now installed lights to make it safer - AFTER I moved away). Whereas in the village, it's all localized and human scaled. No cars allowed within (there's a car space outside), but since it's human scaled, that means you can easily walk to things. While still living in a commercialized setting, I am VERY lucky. I can walk to downtown Noho in like 20 minutes if I felt like it. I have a quick walk to a bus stop and I can get to work for free. Even during my commute, I can socialize if I wanted to. For the short span where I had a car, I sincerely missed that connection I had with people. It felt like I gave up a community spirit for convenience. This morning I was talking with a lady about diet type foods and how you grow to like certain things that you dislike before and she mentioned Chobani yogurt as being really great, and I happened to pull out my container of chobani and we had a conversation about that. Then it followed a natural flow to us both wanting to get back to our books. On my way home, some guy asked me where I got my umbrella (it's new and I LOVE it - it's a big rainbow umbrella). I love chit chatting with people and making those small connections that would probably seem meaningless to most, but I like them.
Anyways, if you are interested in the village idea go to www.villageforum.com. It has more info and will be much more concise and knowledgeable than I am at this moment. Maybe if we could drum up enough interest in one out here, then one could be built. So far there aren't any in the states, but Lewenz was thinking California or Arizona. It'd be nice to have one up here that is close to our families and I think there are enough people out here who would go along with this idea. maybe not in MA, but perhaps Vermont or NH.
In other news, the boy (W) has me reading this book called Life Liberty Happiness by Claude Lewenz. It's about life in a village, a modern village.
Basically, it's about an end to being viewed as a consumer and a beginning to being viewed as a citizen, participant in community, having a high quality of life from birth to death (kids can roam about safely and the elderly aren't shipped off to die in some nursing home), and an emphasis on beauty rather than commercialism and mass production.
I absolutely love this idea and am becoming more enamored with it. Before I met W, I had visited some internet friends down in Jersey. They were involved in the poly community down there and had some friends who built a house together and lived in it. So, there were several adults and a few kids living in one house sharing the responsibilities. I loved this idea and thought it was absolutely fantastic. Growing up, it was often just me and my parents who both worked (my dad retired though when I was in like 7th grade). A few times we had people living with us and at times it was fun. We helped some people out who needed it. The most memorable was when my cousin and her 2 daughters moved in with us. It was fun having little ones around, even though we had to be careful about her ex coming to find them. I liked having the little ones around as it added more life into the house. Even now, my parents still have someone who is not family living with them. We lived in an area where you could let the kids go out and play and run around in the streets because there were so few cars and when they did come by, they had to be slow (dirt roads and windy, narrow paved roads kinda enforce that).
The problem with this is that it's still part of the commercialized state where you have to drive everywhere. My parents home is on the very outskirts of my town with not much around it. We had a pond, and 2 restaurants that were pricey for say a teen or a young adult. A mile or so walk over a dangerous (I almost got t-boned on that) overpass can get you to the industrial park or to the convenience store and a few other small shops and one of those family chains. That stuff mostly came after I moved out. What was there was moot anyways since you would have to cross a very dangerous overpass (they have now installed lights to make it safer - AFTER I moved away). Whereas in the village, it's all localized and human scaled. No cars allowed within (there's a car space outside), but since it's human scaled, that means you can easily walk to things. While still living in a commercialized setting, I am VERY lucky. I can walk to downtown Noho in like 20 minutes if I felt like it. I have a quick walk to a bus stop and I can get to work for free. Even during my commute, I can socialize if I wanted to. For the short span where I had a car, I sincerely missed that connection I had with people. It felt like I gave up a community spirit for convenience. This morning I was talking with a lady about diet type foods and how you grow to like certain things that you dislike before and she mentioned Chobani yogurt as being really great, and I happened to pull out my container of chobani and we had a conversation about that. Then it followed a natural flow to us both wanting to get back to our books. On my way home, some guy asked me where I got my umbrella (it's new and I LOVE it - it's a big rainbow umbrella). I love chit chatting with people and making those small connections that would probably seem meaningless to most, but I like them.
Anyways, if you are interested in the village idea go to www.villageforum.com. It has more info and will be much more concise and knowledgeable than I am at this moment. Maybe if we could drum up enough interest in one out here, then one could be built. So far there aren't any in the states, but Lewenz was thinking California or Arizona. It'd be nice to have one up here that is close to our families and I think there are enough people out here who would go along with this idea. maybe not in MA, but perhaps Vermont or NH.