Creating an intentional community is the primary motivation behind our co-housing project. Our understanding of community continues to evolve. Our ongoing conversation has been stimulated by some of the following thoughts.
Furthering the common good does not require that we forego self-interest, but rather that we are able to see our own interests linked to those of others. It requires a society that enables citizens to express the very human need to act on our deepest values as well as on our private interests.
Frances Moore Lappé, Rediscovering America’s Values
…Individualistic material progress and the desire to gain prestige by coming out on top have taken over from the sense of fellowship, compassion and community. Now people live more or less on their own in a small house, jealously guarding their goods and planning to acquire more, with a notice on the gate that says, “Beware of the Dog.”
Jean Vanier, Community And Growth
[We stand by the ideas, even if we can no longer stand by the man. (In 2020 an investigation concluded Vanier had sexually abused a number of women during a more than thirty-year span.)–DT, July 2022]
There is no such thing at any stage of human development as life without relationships. In this later stage then, the only uncertainty is whether we will decide to live inside ourselves, alone with our past relationships, or trust that the life made glorious by others in the past can be made glorious again — by new meetings, new moments, new spirit.
Joan Chittister, The Gift of Years
Wine on the Porch 