"I Want to Live in A Commune"

     It was a funny line that came out of nowhere. How did she know I'd been pondering this very same notion for a few weeks now...I wasn't toting my book.
     I was waiting for my routine check up when the nurse practitioner came in asking, "What? No veggies today?" Lately I've become the Pied Piper of Veggies having discovered it's just easier to give things away than to try to can or freeze everything. Thurman taught year one of my garden "It just makes for good neighbors," what's more, it makes me feel nostalgic...like in your grandpa's day when folks paid their doctor with a pig or something. (Veggies are much neater.)
     We struck up a conversation about food of all things. Maybe it's my age. Maybe it's too many stories of something tainted. In both our cases we confessed to feeling guilt with each drive-through run, but sometimes at the end of a long day you just want to fill up your belly and collapse. I know the feeling all too well...Only when you're tripping over fresh veggies everywhere you turn, you do have a built in reminder to deter you.
     But then she said the funniest thing. This educated nurse practitioner who is mindful she shouldn't but sometimes goes for junk food anyway when she's too, too exhausted (and looking at her office that day I sensed this might be one of those evenings) ...she said (and I quote) "I want to live in a commune."
     Despite the book title I'm showing atop this blog, I had not carried that one with me, however it's on my bedside table and has become a Bible of a read as I ponder just how that might work...after all, when you make the choice to focus on careers and not kids (well, not the two-legged kind anyway), there will come a point where you ponder your future...It doesn't take a rocket scientist to point out that if  I want to continue living the life I'm living (and I do) where farming is a key part, and funny lifeforms grace my daily routine (which I like) then you better come up with a plan, Evins, cause someday you'll be the little old lady in need of assistance. Heck, I could use help now (says the girl dreading the morning's task of lifting 3 (50 pound) bags of goat chow out of her Jeep!)
     Co-communities...Intentional Housing...Co-housing...There are many words for the concept. It originated in Denmark (leave it to those Danes) and it's fairly common in Europe, and now, it's even starting to show up stateside~
     I have some cousins who lived in such a community. (And to be clear, I'm not talking The Farm, though having interviewed Steve Gaskin and his lovely wife, Ina Mae, on several occasions I have to say I always admired their commitment to the concept.) In my cousins' case, it was a village outside of Chicago called Stelle. People from all walks of life joined together to share in common beliefs and common chores benefitting both from the safe haven of community, but also from the economies of scale. They shared a big garden and canned their own food; they watched out for each others kids making it one of the safest neighborhoods around. They were green before green was cool, harnessing solar so as to create their own electric grid and telephone co-op. They had their own natural water supply and treatment set-up. They focused on permaculture and sustainable living and to this day this little village of 100 or so people thrives beautifully depending not on the government, but on each other.
     I'm only starting to study the concept, but I gotta say, I'm finding it fascinating. As I think through all the chores I do on any given day, that my next door neighbors and their next door neighbors do--just like I do~ Well, it does occur to me there might just be another way of going about  things if we put our heads together.
     On top of this, people my age don't expect Social Security to be in existence by the time we could cash out. One glance at the evening news tells you our economy is propped on smoke and mirrors. You don't have to be a "Doomsday Prepper" to know we've got to sustain ourselves somehow and I for one like thinking ahead before someone else does my thinking for me. The closer we grow things to home, the better for everything involved (the better the food, the better the pricing, the better for our own bodies). Right now as I look around at friends who are as busy as I am, some facing bankruptcy, some facing job uncertainties, friends wanting to downscale and simplify, I'm wondering who you gonna count on?  Your church? Your government? Or those who know you best and love you most...More and more I'm thinking "It takes a village."