Twin Rivers is interesting; cohousing is even more interesting

In our modern world the technologies are awesome (personally, I'm full of awe . . . and in regard to high-tech I sometimes wonder how awe-some relates to awe-full).

And in our modern world the institutions are awesome (forgive me being redundant, but in regard to big institutions like the government and the multinational corporations, I sometimes wonder how awe-some relates to awe-full!).

Anyway, amidst all the awe, what's missing is a thriving participatory community life. Our financial and social resources tend to go toward technologies and institutions rather than toward our communities.

I think less of our money and attention should go to Washington and Wal-Mart; more to community-based businesses or a Brooktree Neighborhood Association, say, or Twin Rivers.

One of the sentiments coming out of the Sixties social change ferment was a desire for a revival of communitarianism. The idea for Twin Rivers was conceived in the wake of that sentiment. It was part of a movement for Planned Unit Developments (P.U.D.'s).

P.U.D.'s usually offered some or all of the following features:
. self-management through a Homeowners Association;
. a clubhouse with social and recreational facilities;
. community-arranged activities;
. childcare availability;
. food prepared in the clubhouse kitchen.

During the 1980s an even better way to achieve the revival of participatory community was inaugurated. The new movement went beyond the P.U.D. concept and was called "cohousing".

Typically in a P.U.D. the provision of amenities and services is institutional and the Homeowners Association becomes the province of a managing clique or a Board which the residents tend to relate to as "Them" rather than "Us." Cohousing, on the other hand, strives for participatory management based on a sense of commitment, belonging and ownership; the provision of amenities and services is less institutional, more personal; there is a conscious fostering of community self-reliance and mutual support.

For example, childcare in a P.U.D. might be provided by a vendor, but in cohousing the parents (and others who like to interact with children) coordinate to provide it for themselves. In a P.U.D. food might be prepared in the Clubhouse kitchen through a contracting arrangement with a catering service. In cohousing (where the Clubhouse is called the Common House) the community members prepare dinners for each other several times a week on a rotating basis.

There are now over 100 cohousing communities in the U.S. (though none, yet, in New Jersey). Many strive to foster a culture of ecological values and are called "ecovillages". The idea is to create sustainable lifeways where people feel grounded, comfortable, and supported; where people feel at home in a very stable community and in a cherished place-on-earth.

Eco-communitarian values include: stewardship, interrelationship, mutuality, familiarity, responsibility. Cohousing is based on a vision of simplifying, sharing, and living lightly . . . which might be lower tech but surely yields higher satisfaction.

In a nutshell: know your neighbors, love the land, attend to community life, and enjoy all the benefits!