So we hear plenty of people calling out for a commune to live on, or those with a commune seeking more inhabitants, but what we don't really hear about is the actual communal living. What does living on a commune mean to you? What's it really like, verses what you thought it would be like? Was it as hard or impossible to go without the luxuries afforded to the average materialistic American? I want to hear the stories of communal living from the people actually living the life.
working together doing what each person is able helping those less able producing more than one consumes respecting the spiritual nature of one another Giving back more to the earth than we take Providing for wildlife a space of their own sharing the groups abundence to others in need consuming as little as possible reusing what has already been made redirecting energy needs to reusable and sustainable Songs and dance and praise to above for our sustenance thats a few that i can think about
I've lived the communal life for many yrs in the 70, in both the big city and the deep woods.. It has it's ups and downs. With so many different personalities in a group of ppl there are bound to be conflicts over points of views on certain topics. It's just Human Nature and we are all entitled to our opinions. If there were any major fallouts we would bring it to counsel and work out a compromise. Everyone took turns on daily chores weather in the city or in the country, we all had our day on House'/Garden/livestock etc. After all the work was done you just did what made you happy as long as it didn't infringe on someone else. We liked to Party in our free time. We also did crafts and were vendors in various fields of expertise, we still are, as most of us who are still breathin' are still in touch. It creates a bond of brotherhood that time cannot hinder, it was about the love and sharing it with ones that were also about the love and helping one another survive. It still is. It's also about the work. The work is hard, but that's why it's called work. If everyone holds up their end of the work, then the job gets done and everyone that worked reaps the benefit. Those who reap without sowing do not stay long unless there is a cause keeping them from physically working, then they can contribute in other ways. Back in my day it was free to be part of a commune. You had to pay your way but you weren't charged a fee to join. I hear that communes now days charge you to become a member. That was never the way it was meant to be. You have to be careful of wolves in sheep's clothing. There are a lot of scams these days that offer beauty and freedom but charge you big for squat accommodations and work you to death claiming all the royalties for themselves. There are still some secluded communes that are based on living life without giving up who you are.
ok so who wins your presence at their commune Vincent? :sunny: kidding I too have been living at communes since the late 60's from tolstoy in the high plains outside of spokane, wash state to a friends in 1970 laytonville calif to USMC for a short stint then back to garberville calif, 1974 southern humboldt "too high earth ranch" and then yes even the phila suburbs running recovery homes i built from 1988 to 1995 (green homes) for ex addicts..and then started my own in a few places mostly in 1996 to 1998 on a 200 acre farm i bought in western Virginia and then on to trans homes in the 2000's in starbuck, minnesota , Naugatuck, conn, Palatine NY to Brooklyn's park slope to 2003 Houston, Texas where i had another group home in houston east side and then on to RV traveling 2004 and picking up homeless all over the USA and finally back to N. Calif as a 84 yr old womans caregiver in southern humboldt from 2004 to 2006 on her 8 acres i developed for her hippy daughter, where i was able to take in a few on her property and then back east to take care of mom to twelvetribes.org communities 2008 to 2009 and then back to get mom then to lastly my farm here :daisy: where i live with mom and a cat. PS: Plus there was the 5 story tree house i built as a teen where runaway kids went too live and hangout
HAH! Wel, as it stands, I'm still heading to Panama to step away from my Western life, and off into non-christian Amish-style of minimalism. I'll get my commune one day, or at the least, a little place for myself, my goats, chickens, and bees.
I looks more like it will be a hermitage over a commune, but it might turn into a commune after a few years of establishing the lifestyle
so the ""Songs and dance and praise to above for our sustenance"" scared you off .. or was it my amish neighbors?? :seeya: :conehead: They are actually pretty cool .. they let me drive their team of horses plowing fields which is wild.. :beatdeadhorse5:
LMAO Nah, I just made a plan before you offered me to come live on your commune, and I intend to follow through with this plan.... and it's actually more of the fact I want out of the US.
seems like part of the ideal of communal living is to create a life that is better than normal society. but if that is really going to be the case then you need a pretty good foundation to build your new society on or it might just end up being worse. i've lived in a community where we worked alot. we ran a restaraunt which was the main source of our income and we thought it would be sad if people came into our restaraunt and didn't have a table to sit at since maybe this meant that we wouldn't get a chance to meet them, so we would constantly be making commodations to make sure we had enough tables, which in turn made our business increase, and our work lives were overloaded. we were way too stretched to be running the type of business we were running. if we had way more people then maybe it would have been better. but the common mindset was that it is good to be super stretched in our work lives. sometimes i would take on the work of several people. everyone would take on the work of several people. if i was to designate what a normal workload would be, everyone in our community was doing several times that. besides that though it was an enviroment that was dominated by love and caring for others. once people got to know you and saw that you weren't just selfish and in it for yourself, and your charachter was proven, there wasn't much that people wouldn't do for you if you needed it. and hopefully you would do the same for others in their time of need. like making provisions to take care of people if there was a birth, or if someone gets sick, or even if someone was just suffering for whatever reason the whole community would rally around the problem and fix it. people would have different tasks to contribue to the whole. certain people specialised in certain things so that maybe you wouldn't have to do all the same tasks that you might have to do to take care of yourself if you were living by yourself. but instead maybe you spend all your time providing for the needs of yourself and others in a certain area, while other people cover the other areas. so everyone's needs get met. we would also forbare with people's faults and ways that they fell short of things that they were doing, ways they were in their relationships with others, etc. children were a pretty important part of our life too. it's the responsibility of a community for the children they raise, so everyone invested alot of energy into caring for them. i don't live in the place i'm speaking of anymore but it was a nice learning experience and maybe i can find a place to implement some of those things somewhere else one day.
