I'm just riffing here, but I don't know that setting up a small community where one can exercise much needed control and create better conditions for fulfilling potential is not a gated community like, say, a buddhist retreat. Us here, the rest of the world over there. If you talk about putting up walls to protect ourselves, that sounds exactly like what you hope to do. Though of course its different, in that the conditions within your walls are, hopefully, likely to be far more fruitful and fulfilling. When a protective wall morphs into a prison, it is indeed time to get out, out into the world.
I have reflected on your last comment and on my first response to that comment. I acknowledge that my saying that if I had the choice I would choose to live somewhere remote from starving hordes, is somewhat insensitive, and may well have given you cause to react. It could certainly give the impression of an 'I'm alright Jack' kind of attitude. I regret if that is the case. I put it down to a kind of hard-nosed pragmatism (seeing the path society seems to be on). If I am fortunate enough to have a choice about where I live, I do not want to prohibit anyone else from having similar fortune, while acknowledging that, of course, most people do not. What to do? I can only do the best I can for myself and my loved-ones with the knowledge and resources to hand. I am very aware of where I came from, my socio-economic roots, and I have a drive to keep myself, and my loved-ones, from the states of poverty, and very limited choice, that define that.
Sorry. I'm a bit confused by your comment. I didn't mention anything in my piece about hoping to set up a community, gated or otherwise, away from the rest of the world. You seem to be reading something that isn't there.
I enjoyed reading this and it gave me some food for thought. I wondered about the relationship between becoming rooted somewhere and ownership. No-one talks about putting down roots somewhere and then rents for 20 years. Though of course you can spend a lifetime in a council house and feel very strongly that you have roots in the area, which suggests that ownership has very little to do with it.
People seem more important than place when we talk about roots and community. We've lived in one place for 15 years and brought 3 kids up here, but neither of us would say we had any sort of roots here. The community aspect, in spite of our best efforts, has not really materialised. When our last child has fledged we will in all likelihood take off.
The roots analogy is interesting. I suppose, scientifically speaking, that a plant's root system is so widespread and complex so as to maximise the amount of nutrients that can be obtained from the soil. In the same way, the more we travel from place to place, the more complex our own root systems become and the more nourishment we get.
A lot of people with strong roots to a place/community may possibly "not know any different". That's a negative outcome to me, but I'm outside looking in. If I was inside, it would be my universe and quite adequate.
I don't personally feel that I have any roots as such. I have a long list of travel and location "credits" right up until 2005. And actually, with age, a lot of my yearnings have subsided. So I am here, rootless, without full community, but quite content and with quite enough to be getting on with.
Thanks for this. I agree with you that connection with people seems more important than place. I can imagine how connection to place might be very important to people whose livelihood and welfare is inextricably bound up with their location. But I'm not a farmer or a hunter-gatherer, for now at least, so my feelings about location are more centred on aesthetic value. Although when I consider the possibility of settling somewhere longer-term, I am focused on pragmatic matters such as access to ground-water, climate, remoteness from starving hordes, and general potential for sustainability. For me, 'home' is wherever I am together with my partner.
I especially appreciate what you say about the difference between being inside and looking in from the outside. It raises the question for me of when is the acceptance of a situation being adequate an avoidance of the possibility of imagining a grander, fuller situation? This question equally relates to the point I was making in the piece about the difference between living as the self, and living as the Self. It seems apparent that we build walls to protect ourselves, and that these walls become our prison. I think most of us, most of the time, choose to live inside walls that limit us, so long as they maintain a semblance of adequacy.
I'm just riffing here, but I don't know that setting up a small community where one can exercise much needed control and create better conditions for fulfilling potential is not a gated community like, say, a buddhist retreat. Us here, the rest of the world over there. If you talk about putting up walls to protect ourselves, that sounds exactly like what you hope to do. Though of course its different, in that the conditions within your walls are, hopefully, likely to be far more fruitful and fulfilling. When a protective wall morphs into a prison, it is indeed time to get out, out into the world.
I have reflected on your last comment and on my first response to that comment. I acknowledge that my saying that if I had the choice I would choose to live somewhere remote from starving hordes, is somewhat insensitive, and may well have given you cause to react. It could certainly give the impression of an 'I'm alright Jack' kind of attitude. I regret if that is the case. I put it down to a kind of hard-nosed pragmatism (seeing the path society seems to be on). If I am fortunate enough to have a choice about where I live, I do not want to prohibit anyone else from having similar fortune, while acknowledging that, of course, most people do not. What to do? I can only do the best I can for myself and my loved-ones with the knowledge and resources to hand. I am very aware of where I came from, my socio-economic roots, and I have a drive to keep myself, and my loved-ones, from the states of poverty, and very limited choice, that define that.
Sorry. I'm a bit confused by your comment. I didn't mention anything in my piece about hoping to set up a community, gated or otherwise, away from the rest of the world. You seem to be reading something that isn't there.
I enjoyed reading this and it gave me some food for thought. I wondered about the relationship between becoming rooted somewhere and ownership. No-one talks about putting down roots somewhere and then rents for 20 years. Though of course you can spend a lifetime in a council house and feel very strongly that you have roots in the area, which suggests that ownership has very little to do with it.
People seem more important than place when we talk about roots and community. We've lived in one place for 15 years and brought 3 kids up here, but neither of us would say we had any sort of roots here. The community aspect, in spite of our best efforts, has not really materialised. When our last child has fledged we will in all likelihood take off.
The roots analogy is interesting. I suppose, scientifically speaking, that a plant's root system is so widespread and complex so as to maximise the amount of nutrients that can be obtained from the soil. In the same way, the more we travel from place to place, the more complex our own root systems become and the more nourishment we get.
A lot of people with strong roots to a place/community may possibly "not know any different". That's a negative outcome to me, but I'm outside looking in. If I was inside, it would be my universe and quite adequate.
I don't personally feel that I have any roots as such. I have a long list of travel and location "credits" right up until 2005. And actually, with age, a lot of my yearnings have subsided. So I am here, rootless, without full community, but quite content and with quite enough to be getting on with.
Thanks for this. I agree with you that connection with people seems more important than place. I can imagine how connection to place might be very important to people whose livelihood and welfare is inextricably bound up with their location. But I'm not a farmer or a hunter-gatherer, for now at least, so my feelings about location are more centred on aesthetic value. Although when I consider the possibility of settling somewhere longer-term, I am focused on pragmatic matters such as access to ground-water, climate, remoteness from starving hordes, and general potential for sustainability. For me, 'home' is wherever I am together with my partner.
I especially appreciate what you say about the difference between being inside and looking in from the outside. It raises the question for me of when is the acceptance of a situation being adequate an avoidance of the possibility of imagining a grander, fuller situation? This question equally relates to the point I was making in the piece about the difference between living as the self, and living as the Self. It seems apparent that we build walls to protect ourselves, and that these walls become our prison. I think most of us, most of the time, choose to live inside walls that limit us, so long as they maintain a semblance of adequacy.