Communal living and intentional communities: what can you offer?
So the idea of living in a commune, or rather, forming a small intentional community has, recently and once again, been dangled in front of my hippie-wannabe face, and it got me thinking: If I lived in an intentional community, what would I do? What niche would I fill?
Well, the first thing that came to mind is teaching. I've got plenty of teaching and tutoring experience from Kindergarten to University. I can teach pretty much anything, provided I have a keen understanding of it before-hand. For a long-term community, wherein there are children, having a teacher-type person around is damned handy, I say.
As far as other skills, I'm good at doing a little bit of everything, from cooking for people with specialized diets, to knitting, to basic car maintenance. In addition, my interests are far-reaching; I'm a fast learner and I am Research Girl.
I want to know more (in that Very Real, Very Satisfying, Hands-On sort of way) about carpentry, wood-working, gardening, soap-making, candle-making, sheep shearing, wool spinning and dying, cooking for large groups of people who have varying food issues, waste management, alternative and naturopathic health care, midwifery, animal husbandry, making butter/cheese/yoghurt, milking dairy cows or goats, keeping chickens, building fires in wood stoves, chopping wood.
Heh.
Before enlightenment:
Chop Wood. Carry Water.
After enlightenment:
Chop Wood. Carry Water.
I would so totally take the chance to live in either an urban or rural intentional community. I want a satisfying full day's work where I get up at dawn and crash at ten, sleeping like a baby because I've worked so hard that day literally putting food on the table. Modern life seems so very out of joint to me, and the persistent latent fear that Western Civilization is going to come crashing down all around us urges me toward a Back-to-Basics lifestyle more than ever.
So my question for you, dear reader, is two-fold: If given the chance to live in an intentional community, would you? (Name your conditions) And what would your presence do for the community?
Well, the first thing that came to mind is teaching. I've got plenty of teaching and tutoring experience from Kindergarten to University. I can teach pretty much anything, provided I have a keen understanding of it before-hand. For a long-term community, wherein there are children, having a teacher-type person around is damned handy, I say.
As far as other skills, I'm good at doing a little bit of everything, from cooking for people with specialized diets, to knitting, to basic car maintenance. In addition, my interests are far-reaching; I'm a fast learner and I am Research Girl.
I want to know more (in that Very Real, Very Satisfying, Hands-On sort of way) about carpentry, wood-working, gardening, soap-making, candle-making, sheep shearing, wool spinning and dying, cooking for large groups of people who have varying food issues, waste management, alternative and naturopathic health care, midwifery, animal husbandry, making butter/cheese/yoghurt, milking dairy cows or goats, keeping chickens, building fires in wood stoves, chopping wood.
Heh.
Before enlightenment:
Chop Wood. Carry Water.
After enlightenment:
Chop Wood. Carry Water.
I would so totally take the chance to live in either an urban or rural intentional community. I want a satisfying full day's work where I get up at dawn and crash at ten, sleeping like a baby because I've worked so hard that day literally putting food on the table. Modern life seems so very out of joint to me, and the persistent latent fear that Western Civilization is going to come crashing down all around us urges me toward a Back-to-Basics lifestyle more than ever.
So my question for you, dear reader, is two-fold: If given the chance to live in an intentional community, would you? (Name your conditions) And what would your presence do for the community?