Monthly Archives: April 2017

A few years ago, I started writing a novel that was loosely based on my recollections of having grown up in and out of a series of attempted religious communities. As I wrote, I collected material from others with similar experiences, and the anecdotes piled high. Eventually I realized that some of the stories were so over-the-top, mere realism would be insufficient to convey the bizarre intensity of life on the outside of the ordinary parameters of modern American experience, and a sort of magical realist/ gothic mashup would be better. Magical realism as a sub-genre has a special place in tale-telling of post-colonial or marginalized communities. And there is something post-colonial, something of the feel of the immigrant, when you come out of community life and dwell in the mainstream. As my collection of anecdotes piled high, I found myself thinking, repeatedly, damn, this is good. I HAVE to use this one. Of course, in the ethos of the storyteller, good usually means excruciatingly bad, painful, embarrassing, tragic.

So, yes, escapees from intentional community have stories to tell, and many are painful. My own experiences verge more on the grotesquely humorous, and some of my memories are happy ones, so even now, when the experiments are over, I still can understand why something like the Benedict Option would appeal to people. In a way, it is a beautiful dream.

Because, you see, the Benedict Option though not by that name was around for a good forty years before Dreher sat down to write. My father was one of several who came up with the idea. While running a raucous bar in Chapel Hill, NC, he was also reading Thomas Merton and Louis Bromfield and Ralph Waldo Emerson, and eventually came to the conclusion that the best bet for Christians in the modern world was to come out and be set apart. He even drew on his understanding of St. Benedicts communities, with a special stress on the notion of ora et labora.

Because my father opted actually to do the thing, instead of sitting in an office writing a book about it, you have never heard of him. Which means, I suppose, that his attempt was fairly successful. But these attempts are never all that successful.

My novel The Serpent Motif ended up being 180,00 words long, which means too long to interest agents for hard-copy publications, so Im trimming it down a bit while I work on another, shorter project. And from a theoretical standpoint I could also wax overly verbose, on the idea of intentional religious community, why it is attractive, and why it wont work. I have had first-hand experience of just how things can go wrong, and lots of second-hand stories about other ways they can go even more wrong.

And theres something touchingly tragic about it: because on a fundamental level, one can see the appeal of the idea, and many of those who attempted it did so with the noblest of intentions.

Sam Rochas recent review of The Benedict Option details some of the areas in which Drehers conceptualization fails. Rocha, like me, has first-hand experience of what an attempt at community feels like. Fr. Stephanos Pedrano, guest-writing for Steel Magnificat, details why the Option isnt especially Benedictine.

And there are other problems: when you try to come Out (or In?), whatever you feared in the World comes in with you, into your microcosm. Its ironic that my fathers first community was called New Eden. Into every Eden, a serpent will come. We tend to bring it in with us. Want to escape from overweening tyrannical power? Too bad, you probably brought it with you, and you will find the community dominated by whichever leader (usually male) has the loudest voice and the least empathy. Want to escape from sexual perversion? Ha. Have I got some stories! Its amazing just how perverse people can be, on the land, when no one is looking. Want to escape from a welfare system in which those who dont work wont eat? I can assure you, you will be shelling beans or building a cabin while nearby some hanger-on rambles on forever about how misunderstood he is. Tired of nitpicking bureaucracy? Your community will be filled with nitpickers, happy to call you out if your daughters skirts are too short, or if your sons have been listening to evil music like (gasp) Simon and Garfunkel.

Communities like this tend to attract those who are unable to get along in the ordinary world, and whatever it was that made them unable to get along, they will bring in with them.

But the main thing I want to touch on, here, is why the idea of radical separation into intentional community is delusional from the start. And that has to do with money.

Money creates systemic dependence. Thats why agrarianism is a needed component in any marginally successful effort. Independence from the System means creating an alternative inter-dependence on the land. Back in the late eighties, my family and others were involved in ongoing discussions about this, with others involved in Caelum et Terra, the brainchild of Daniel Nichols. Nichols, like my father, gets the hipster cred here: he came up with the Benedict Option before it was cool. Too bad they didnt patent it.

Now, today, David Russell Mosley writes about Michael Martins Sophia Option, as an alternative to Drehers approach. Martin is a biodynamic farmer (I have him to thank for my fine horseradish planting), and understands better than a journalist what is entailed in creating a network of interconnections that differ from those in the neo-liberal capitalist system. I would suggest that any attempt at intentional community that neglects agrarianism is already problematic, because it means that one remains absolutely dependent on money, and therefore on capitalism, and therefore on industry, and therefore on the whole global military industrial complex. Which means, if you think youre set apart, youre just fooling yourself. You are living immersed in structural evil, and limply virtue-signalling.

But even with agrarianism, its impossible to avoid money. We tried. We lived on someone elses land, so there were no taxes. My parents had no money-earning work outside the home, but we lived almost entirely on garden produce. We had electricity, but no running water, no telephone, certainly no television. We heated our home with a wood stove, and my father spent all day every day all winter just cutting wood, with a bowsaw and axe (no noisy chainsaws to disturb the tranquility of nature), in order to keep one room of the house livable.

But we still needed a little money, and relied heavily on donations from those who remained complicit in the system. Which means we were complicit in the system, even if we pretended not to be.

The Onion had a funny piece, recently, about how Noam Chomsky trying just to enjoy a normal day, but everything he sees reminds him of our dependence on neoliberal global imperialsm. I sympathize. I would like to create a culture in which I know that nothing I use is made by slave labor or via environmental despoilment. I would like to rely entirely on hand-tools that dont depend on fossil fuels, and derive my energy from renewable resources. Forget about the incredible challenges of going off-grid in our society. The challenge even buying work clothes that dont tie me in with slave labor is so great, I occasionally have what my husband jokingly refers to as Noam Chomsky moments.

Unless we run off into the wild and live by foraging, and clad ourselves in natural fibers, we are locked into the System.

And even if we were to do this, the System would go on.

Unless, of course, it collapses: this was what I was raised to believe would happen, and now I regard with amusement the feverish attempts of Preppers to prepare for it.

In the Prepper mind, once the System collapses, well all be living like survivalists, foraging and hunting, growing things from open-pollinated seed. But this is again sheer fantasy. We have so depleted our natural resources, the only way a nation of Preppers would survive off the land is if most of them were killed off in the apocalyptic event, first. As it stands, an America full of trigger-happy survivalists out there bagging game for their families will wipe out the deer population in no time at all. I suppose eventually the Preppers will get around to eating one another. Radial inter-dependence on community, indeed.

So what we have to admit is that no matter how diligently we attempt to distance ourselves from the System, we are still locked into it. Or else living on a mountain dressed in goat-hide, eating one another.

So as Christians who take a serious moral stance in relation to structural evil (though we may differ in our ideas of what structural evil is: what I fear is not at all the things Dreher fears) what do we do? There have to be a range of middle grounds between total acceptance of a system that generates destruction, and the sort of radical self-sufficiency that leads to degradation, failure of community, and ultimately cannibalism (metaphorical, if not literal). I hope that, at least, the publication of Drehers book will open up more space for these conversations. But in order to sort out what is and isnt possible, we need to start by being honest with ourselves about just how dependent we really are.

Image credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jean-Fran%C3%A7ois_Millet_(II)_001.jpg (This painting of The Angelus by Millet was iconic in my upbringing, an image of the dream my father had of the life of work and prayer on the land)

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my family did the benedict option before it was cool - and here's why ... - Patheos (blog)

Work as we know it is changing. With an emerging gig economy, and the advent of technologies that allow us to work from almost anywhere, many self-employed professionals and entrepreneurs are discovering that sometimes, working from home can be a little lacking: not much social interaction nor professional networking.

So it probably makes sense that communal coworking spaces have boomed in the last few years, catering to these independent professionals who crave the community and perks that working from home can't offer. But there's more to it than just having a nicer space to work in. If you're already working from home or from a caf, and are curious, here are a few surprising reasons to try coworking out, and why the burgeoning coworking movement can benefit local communities as well.

Perhaps one of the main reasons why people join coworking spaces is to feel less isolated. Coworking spaces can provide not only inspiring, shared office spaces and amenities like real meeting rooms, they can also help people network, swap skills and build their businesses in an organic way -- something that's much more difficult if you're working from home.

Of course, there's also the trap of sterile, "soulless" coworking places as well. So how can one separate the wheat from the chaff? As Brooklyn-based Friends coworking space founder Tina Roth-Eisenberg puts it:

Unlike most co-working spaces, I believe in keeping things small. Small community, small space. I dont believe in looking at it like a business. A co-working space should have a value system in place that everyone understands, that creates a kind, safe, supportive environment where people feel at home.

Read more: Successful coworking spaces should be built like 'intentional communities'

Another big reason for going the coworking path is flexibility and a better work-life balance. Without the need to be tied to a specific place and time to work, many location-independent professionals now have more options to balance work with play. I noted:

But why work where you live if you can take your work with you and travel? The rapid growth of co-working hubs around the world are fueling an emerging trend where some entrepreneurs, self-employed digital nomads and remote professionals are opting for what's called a "startup retreat", "co-working retreat", "co-working vacation" or a "co-workation" -- a more structured, exotic version of a regular co-working space membership, one could say.

Even if you can't travel to far-off, exotic places to cowork, one can even join a mobile coworking space that makes daily rounds for biking, hiking and surfing (of the beach kind). And if you really can't get out and have kids, you can find a coworking space with childcare.

Read more: Can co-working vacations offer a better work-life balance? Mobile coworking bus lets professionals work, hike, bike & surf Why aren't more co-working spaces offering childcare -- and a list that do

The Wing

Much has been written about how this generation's young people value perks when it comes to choosing a place of employment. That's no different from selecting a shared office space. Many communal work places offer in-house gyms, yoga classes, climbing walls, playgrounds and one even has its own plant army. And hey, if you also want to only cowork and network with women entrepreneurs? There are spaces for you, too.

Read more: Why the rise of women-only co-working spaces makes sense

The Crew Collective

As I write this, I'm sitting in a magnificent bank building in Old Montreal built in the 1920's that was abandoned in 2010. It has since been revitalized and turned into a publicly accessible caf and coworking space managed by The Crew Collective.

Across town, Temps Libre in Montreal's innovation hub is another coworking space that is doing things a bit differently: in addition to being a non-commercial coworking space, they offer the local community a library, an arcade and a cooperatively managed, flexible space and caf that's open to everyone. There are plenty of these hybrid communal spaces popping up all over the world, waiting to be discovered. Coworking spaces, if done with a larger vision in mind, can revitalize and benefit the local communities they are a part of.

hubudbali/via

Working remotely and coworkations can be taken even further into the realm of full-time digital nomadism. But being a digital nomad isn't easy; there's a lot of planning that goes into selecting places to live and a period of disorientation and not knowing anybody when you first land in a new locale.

To counter that, some now offer "global co-living subscriptions" that allow members to live and work in a number of locations around the world, such as this one that has residences in Miami, Bali and Madrid:

A startup called Roam is piloting an interesting new model where participants can sign a lease to live in various co-living spaces around the world. The idea is to foster a global community of digital nomads, while giving them a network of places to call home.

There's also cheaper and more hostel-like versions for travelling professionals, like PodShare, a "coworking and co-living community" in Los Angeles:

PodShare makes life more affordable because there is no security deposit or cost of furnishings and we provide flexible living. Pod life is the future for singles which are not looking to settle down, but focus on their startups and experience something new. [..] Were creating a social network with a physical address. Our open-floor model offers the highest rate of collisions for social travelers. We do not identify with hostelswe are a co-living space or a live-work community.

Even self-employed professionals with kids can transform themselves into digital nomad families who worldschool their kids: with the abundance of online learning opportunities, as well as real-life, hands-on educational moments found during travel or even in a coworking space abroad, working in a different and more fulfilling way is becoming more possible than ever for a growing number of people.

And hey, if you really love working from home but still crave some social interaction, you can consider setting up a coworking space in your own home.

Read more: Have work, will travel: How digital nomads are redefining work Roam: "Global co-living subscription" lets you sign a lease to live in different locations PodShare: Pod-based co-working and co-living community flourishing in LA How 'worldschooling' parents are educating their kids -- by traveling the world (Video) Hoffice project lets people share their homes as free co-working spaces

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5 reasons why there's more to coworking spaces than just work - Treehugger

Were not really Pagans. We have a Pagan veneer over the top of a Christian and secular life. Until we have permanent lands that we live on, are born on, and die on, we wont be Pagans. Wade Mueller

Those words by presenter Wade Mueller caused a noticeable change in the room during his presentation onBuilding an Expanding the Pagan Homelandat Paganicon. Attendees shuffled in their seats, some leaning forward as if to agree, while others leaned back, distancing themselves from that statement.

Wade Mueller [Courtesy Photo]

His presentation focused on how Pagans can create new homelands and why it is vitally important that we do so.

The importance of a homeland

At the beginning of his presentation, Mueller noted the paradox in members of earth-based religions meeting in a hotel to discuss creating a Pagan homeland. He then noted that while Paganism is growing, the numbers of permanent Pagan places are, in his opinion, dwindling.

We are now a religion of nomads yet all of our traditions are based on place. If we want Paganism to to move past where we are now, a social gathering, we need to do something different, stated Mueller. That something different is to buy land to create Pagan communities, businesses, and worship centers.

Attendee Steven Posch appeared to agree, Paganism is tribal, its not what you do in your own room. We need the social skills to become a tribe. If we are still going to be here in 100 years we need to do this.

In Muellers view, modern Pagans arent truly Pagans because we havent yet connected to our Gods as deeply as our ancestors, Right now its chaos. The Gods dont respect us. We turned our backs on them. The onus isnt on them to reach out to us, we need to reach out to them.

He says the only way to regain that connection is to live as Pagans on the land where you were born, where you grow your food, raise your children, honor the Gods, and rest your bones when you die. He believes those activities change the land itself, making it more sacred over the generations and encouraging the Gods to be more present and repairing the broken relationship between humanity and the Gods.

Why Pagan infrastructure projects fail

Mueller outlined how modern Pagans in the USA have typically tried to create lasting infrastructure and why those efforts so often fail. He said a few people come up with an idea to buy land or make a community center. They then appeal to the larger Pagan community to become involved and try to build consensus. That, in Muellers opinion, is where the problem starts.

The problem is when you take into account the opinions of people who will not help do the work or contribute to it, he explains. Thats where we go wrong. The decisions need to be made by those who are contributing.

His advice is to get a small group of very dedicated people who share the same clearly defined vision. He suggests no more than 2 to 5 people. If you have a group of 5 people who are all on the same page, getting together $10,000 to buy a few acres of land is easy, says Mueller.

It may take some time to raise the funds, but he says people who know each other and are committed will put $50 in the pot rather than buy an amber necklace for themselves.

He advises keeping all decision making confined to your core group and not asking the community what they want. He warns this may cause hurt feelings in the wider community as they hear about your project and want to become involved, but to not give in out of fear of hurting feelings.

Feelings dont help. Feelings dont put nails in walls.

He added that leaders willing to undertake such an important task must stay true to their vision and not let it get diluted or hanged by those outside their core group, You have to be willing to say this is who we are, this is what were doing and not back down.

He adds thatyou dont ask the community what they want built, you build it and the community will come and enjoy it later.

A second reason why many Pagan infrastructure projects fail, according to Mueller, is because the founders and the community are looking to benefit now themselves, rather than making sacrifices for the benefit of the next generation.

Mueller says Pagans need to come to terms that what they build is not theirs to enjoy, but for their descendants, Separate yourself from the now.We are building for the next generation so they can be Pagans. Thats our sacrifice.

Mueller is no stranger to sacrifice. When he was 23 he says he realized he could either devote his energy to raising a family or creating a Pagan intentional community, but not both. So he opted for a vasectomy and his legacy is the land he is shaping.

He encouraged attendees to be practical, understand that they will lose money for at least ten years, and to focus on what they are building for the next generation and be willing to make that sacrifice.

Mueller is looking to compile a list of other Pagan groups who are active, own land, and are open to the public or forming an intentional community. He hopes the groups can share tips and encourage other groups to take the plunge.

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Wade Mueller speaks on the need for Pagan homelands | The Wild ... - The Wild Hunt