this season's people

"I used to say that if you took all religions like on IBM punch cards...some of the holes would go clear through the stack...and that's what we're interested in. We agreed that if you actually felt like we were all one, it seemed like you would live somehow collectively so that everybody could have some of what was happening..."

This was Stephen Gaskin's response to Erin's question, "What were the founding principles of The Farm?" It was late afternoon a week ago and we were sitting in Stephen Gaskin's bedroom; he was lounging with his cat on the bed and we were sitting nearby trying to absorb every word of this legendary figure in the hippie subculture movement. Gaskin describes himself as a "non-superstitious psychedelic freethinker" and at 70 years old, he is still an articulate visionary, inciting people to wake up and speak out. In 1980, he was the first recipient of the Right Livelihood Award, the alternative to the Nobel Prize, which has since been awarded to leaders such as Vandana Shiva, Helen Mack and Mordechai Vanunu. He received the award for founding The Farm, an intentional community in Tennessee, an hour south of Nashville and the 4th stop on our community tour.

So what did religion and IBM punch cards have to do with the genesis of this 1700-acre, 175-member community deep in the Bible Belt?

In 1967, as the United States got more embroiled in the Vietnam War, Gaskin started teaching what came to be known as the Monday Night Class at San Francisco State College. Of the class, Gaskin remarked to us, "doing Monday Night Class was a tremendous privilege because everybody was tracking so well together on ideas and other things, you could see an idea go across like wind on a wheatfield." As Farm Historian Albert Bates describes, "Stephen would say, 'Let's talk about how we're gonna be.' Not 'how we're gonna stop the war' or 'how we're gonna make it fair,' but 'how we're gonna be.'" The energy and ability for people to generate ideas and understand these concepts was often a result of experimentation with LSD. At the time, "tripping" seemed like the most effective way to access a higher spiritual plane and understand that "we are all one".

As the class grew to six hundred people, there was a feeling among participants that some kind of planetary change was afoot. Like any movement, you could take a few different approaches to this impending change. Sectors of society like the Weathermen adopted a revolutionary , violent anti-government approach; others participated on a political level. Those who were part of Gaskin's Monday Night class took a spiritual approach.

In 1971, the class morphed into a caravan of 70 buses and 250 people that travelled around the United States with Gaskin giving lectures at universities and churches and others speaking out about the war. The caravan eventually made it to Tennessee where they bought their first 1,000 acres of land for $70/acre. Then, as Gaskin describes, "our kids got to see us be doers". Working together and pooling their resources, they began clearing and cultivating the land, building houses, installing a water system, constructing their own roads and establishing their own midwifery clinic. The Farm's numbers continued to grow throughout the seventies with 50-70 people living in one house at a time. In the early eighties, the community reached 1500 people. The sheer size of this "experiment" created a statistic that was noticed around the country.

In The Farm's brochure, under their guiding principles, it states "we believe that we, individually and collectively, create our own life experience." Peter Schweitzer, an original farmie (as they call themselves) and Executive Director of Plenty International, the Farm's international aid and development NGO, explained it to us another way, "We are the writers and directors of our movie. We are not the victims of whatever the government wants to do. No, we are the authors...and that's liberating." To grow food, erect buildings, get married, deliver the babies and ultimately create a community, no one from The Farm ever asked for any permission. No church, corporation or state was consulted; those that founded the community believed in a vision and authored their own way of living. They did not wait around to see whether or not they were "allowed" to create another reality; they went ahead and made their own revolutionary movie.

In reference to the current world situation, one community member shared that, for him, President Bush represents the worst of us - our worst fears and our violent, reactive side. As Gaskin reminded us in quoting the Second Coming, "The best lack all convictions, while the worst are full of passionate intensity." We need to counterbalance this anti-life atmosphere with a way of living that is compassionate and nonviolent. More than that, however, we need to stop waiting for things to happen to us and instead, change the course of what is happening.

I'm humbled and fascinated by what was created on The Farm...and in those moments of reflection, when my dreams override my fears of what I can or can not do, I'm incredibly excited about the next movie that I, we, all of us who believe in human rights, nonviolence and respect for the earth will come to create.

You are the people.
You are this season's people -
There are no other people this season.
If you blow it, it's blown.
- Stephen Gaskin in ...this season's people


Kareen

Off the grid...

We just came from spending a few days at Earthaven (www.earthaven.org), a developing ecovillage near Asheville, NC, at the foot of the Appalachian Mountains. This community of approximately 65 members is entirely off the grid - all of their electricity is generated through solar, hydro or human power (see photo at right- you rock, Tony!!!). They obtain their water from a nearby spring and almost all their toilets are composting.

Earthaven is a great demonstration center for natural buildings; members' homes are either strawbale, earthship, cob, clay slip or made mostly of recycled materials. More than that, the community is "art in process", as one member described. Aesthetically, it is an incredibly beautiful community with painstaking thought put into the design and sculpture of the houses. In fact, there are times when you feel like you've landed in some fantasyland with names for neighborhoods and houses like Hut Hamlet, White Owl Lodge, Hobbit House, Village Terraces and Council Hall. There's even a labyrinth with a crystal...It conjures up that "other world" experience where you feel stuck in some surreal human experiment at the edge of the planet...

I'm exaggerating of course but being at Earthaven certainly tested the limits of our comfort zone, especially with regards to human waste. As far as I understand, although I would like to read the Humanure Handbook to be certain, composting toilets are legally required to be outside of a building. At Earthaven, they are usually located near buildings/houses and look like a standard outhouse. However, the compost toilet itself has a separate place where the urine goes and a barrel where the feces are deposited. Since this whole operation is outside, Erin and I were presented on our first night with a typical plastic yogurt container with lid to pee in at night, should the need arise. This, of course, is a smart idea, far superior to stumbling outside in the dark at two in the morning at 28 degrees Fahrenheit, trying to find an appropriate place to pee.

Yet, I'm not sure if I'm up for doing it all the time. Each morning, I ceremoniously tromped outside with a full yogurt container of my own urine and attempted to find a discreet place in the garden to dump it. Don't get me wrong, we are resilient, adaptable creatures but these practices of pooping in a barrel and peeing in a yogurt container are not going to fly very well in the mainstream. We are used to flushing away our waste, not having it stare us in the face every time we flip up the toilet seat. I'm all for composting toilets, though. It's unconscionable that we contaminate potable water with feces and urine and flush it away. However, if we are going to sell sustainability to the masses, we can't ask Mrs. Jones to pee in a yogurt container on a regular basis, even if it's of the Horizon, organic low-fat French vanilla variety.

To deal with this issue, a couple of members are putting flush toilets in their houses so that they are "up to code". More than anything, it's to prove that sustainable, eco-friendly houses are possible and that techniques illustrated at Earthaven can be replicated in the mainstream. A part of me thinks this is selling out, another part of me thinks it's simply being realistic.

I'm afraid that there are no juicy stories from this commmunity. Although I did meet a person named Kimchee, our evenings were filled with conversation around the wood stove about peak oil and sustainability, a few games of dominoes and a revival of the 1995 game, Jenga, in an altered form. The possibilities are simply endless in an ecovillage...

Kareen

Egalitarian Communities

Twin Oaks, as you may have already read in Erin's posting below, is an intentional community - a group with its own clear borders and membership that shares a common vision. What makes Twin Oaks particularly interesting is that it is part of the Federation of Egalitarian Communities (www.thefec.org). These communities vary in size and style but all share the same basic values of communal ownership of land and resources, income-sharing, participatory government and a commitment to peace, nonviolence and the environment.

Operating from those principles, what seems to work incredibly well here is the fact that all your basic needs are met with relatively minimal effort. Sure, you have to put in 43 hours of work/week which is more than your average full-time job but the schedule is flexible, the work varied and the bosses non-existent. You aren't constantly concerned about cooking meals, buying food, paying rent/mortgage, and doing errands. How much of our energy in mainstream culture is spent on these daily or weekly tasks? Instead, one person will do the weekly run to the nearest town for supplies, food etc. You don't have to worry about car insurance as there are 18 communal cars should you need one and a mechanic in the community should the car have a problem. In terms of food, Twin Oaks has cows that provide milk, yogurt, cheese and meat, a garden that yields most of the vegetables and a tofu business that not only provides the community with income but is another food source.

Although Erin and I have been working in the community, we still find it hard to walk into the community kitchen and help ourselves to food in the fridge without actually 'paying' for it. It's hard to get away from a money-based mentality. Yet, barely any money is exchanged within the community because there is simply no need for it. You can go weeks here without needing a wallet. In the book, Nickled and Dimed, by Barbara Ehrenreich, the author embarks on a quest to discover whether it is possible for a single woman to survive on minimum wage in the United States. She goes 'undercover' working as a waitress, a maid, and a Wal-Mart employee giving herself a month in each job to try and make ends meet. She needs to pay for rent, gas, food and other incidental expenses. It should come as no surprise that her experiment basically fails. Even holding down two jobs, she is unable to 'get ahead' and have a decent standard of living. Keep in mind that she is a single, English-speaking white woman with no kids in this society and it is difficult for her to get by. It makes the task for many low-income families and individuals look fairly daunting.

Yet, what would happen if instead you lived in community, pooled your resources and income and split your expenses. We've always known that it's a cheaper way to go. We do it all the time by living with housemates, splitting food expenses etc. Twin Oaks is just a massive experiment in this same concept. The beauty of it though is that rather than working for a giant corporation like Wal-Mart that essentially destroys local economy and gives little back to the employee, at Twin Oaks, you are working for yourself and the collective good of the community where you live. When the community divides up their annual income between all 100 members, it averages to about $6,000/year. How many of us can live on $6,000/year and have food, shelter, clothing, access to cars, internet and computers? It seems to be an experiment that is working. It isn't Utopia yet as many like to say in this community and the system certainly comes with a whole set of issues yet I like the idea of reducing everything to a more local, tangible, egalitarian economic system.

In an article I was reading the other day Joanna Macy is quoted as claiming there are 3 different activities that are required for the 'Great Turning' (i.e. the turning away from industrial growth and the military industrial complex to a sustainable future). Those three activities are:

1) Resistance
2) Creating models of the future in the present (e.g. permaculture, intentional communities)
3) Working directly on changing consciousness

Which role, if any, are we willing to take on?

"We don't need hope or hopelessness, we don't need to know what's going to happen, we just need to know that in any case, we should do things that are true and right and beautiful."
- John Seed


More musings soon....

Kareen

"Out there"

There is a reference here in community that I have heard frequently to the world 'out there', the reality that is not Twin Oaks. I'm not sure If I agree with this distinction as it immediately sets up a separation which I feel we can't afford to have. It's true that Twin Oaks' lifestyle is far from the reality of mainstream culture with only one television, 18 cars, 2 washing machines and a few residences for 100 people. However, the separation sets up an 'us and them' dynamic, what can be construed as a self-righteous attitude perhaps, an impression that what we are doing is somehow better, more healthy, more sane, etc. Yet this is precisely the attitude I feel we are trying to avoid. In my opinion, there is no 'out there'; we are all on this planet together, all struggling for the same elusive happiness and just going about it in vastly different ways. In this globalized world that has brought us closer together, there is no need and perhaps no justification for isolating ourselves from the rest of society.

"The first act of war is to create separation, to dehumanize the 'enemy'. That separation is what needs to be healed if we are to end war." - David Jacke, co-author of Edible Forest Gardens (a guide to permaculture in your backyard)

Bok Choy

This blog technology is new to me (Kareen) and I have relied on Erin's articulate and thorough nature to give you an update of our travels thus far. However, I figured I should make my debut as this is a joint tour.

Not to be fatalistic but the world does seem to be unraveling, slowly but surely. As a society, we seem to have lost our hold on what is true and meaningful and the need for alternatives is pressing. I think my journey in this direction started with a course that I took on Gandhi and Globalization in India a couple years ago which led me to apprentice in organic gardening/natural building at Sirius Community (which is mentioned in postings below) and has now pushed me into exploring intentional communities more thoroughly.

But let's get back to "Bok Choy" - that's the name of one of the community members here at the Twin Oaks Community. I've also met Apple, Cherry, Cayenne, Pele and heard about Sky, River, Turnip and Sea-Cow (he wanted to be called Manatee but couldn't stand the thought of having 'man' in his name) - these are not peoples' real names of course, just what seems like identities that individuals have taken on that unfortunately, in my judgemental opinion, completely fulfill the stereotype of hippies living on a commune. To be fair, being at Twin Oaks is like being in another world, an alternative society that could necessitate a reinvention of who you are, a sloughing off of old habits. It's just hard for me to take it seriously when you've assumed the identity of a Chinese vegetable that I happened to dislike as a child (sorry mama).

So I am contemplating a whimsical move to 'Quinoa' as my community name and Erin is thinking of assuming the name 'Echinacea', both of which resonate quite nicely....if you can't taste my sarcasm, you don't know me that well...

Of course, most people in this 100-member community have opted to keep their boring non-fruit/vegetable/spice names and identity shifts aren't the main focus of community life.