Thoughts on how to live a life
A PLACE
I want to have A PLACE in the city where I can get together with friends and like-minded individuals.
I want to prepare and eat food that we can enjoy and appreciate, food we can feel good about eating.
I want to watch films in this space, have discussions, keep it clean, make music, grow food, preserve food, work on art-mechanical-and-building projects (re-purposing)...and, then, go on trips out of the city to be a part of nature: the beach, the mountains, the rivers, hills, caves, farms, lakes, small towns, festivals, and so on.
A PLACE is where you go any time you want to be around intelligent, caring, life-loving individuals. A PLACE is where you can contribute freely, without expectations. A PLACE is for the time before work, after work, or even telecommuting to work. You can relax in A PLACE: it’s like a home or Cheers. We all need A PLACE.
It seems to me this kind of stuff usually occurred in homes or social clubs. My grandparents house was A PLACE where I could go for this kind of freedom. The trouble was, it was three hours away from the city. It wasn’t an easy option before, and it’s not an option now.
It is difficult to re-create this space in the city because it demands precisely that: space. To some degree what I have described could be understood as an artists loft or a communal living arrangement. Others would see it simply as a house you buy for yourself and where you live with your family. Two problems with understanding this as a house: first and easiest, I don’t have a family; second, having space to do these things doesn’t mean you automatically create a community of individuals to share the space with. You have to invite people into your life. When you view it through the lens of “having one’s own house” you make the invitation to enter the house conditional: “I want you to come in and enjoy all that the space has to offer, but of course as you do so, you must recognize that this all occurs because of my great benevolence, my great favor to you. Everything that happens should be okay in my book.” This is a horrible principle to start from when you want to create an open space where individuals feel free to respond and interact out of their own desires and creativity. Besides, what are you going to do with all of that space on your own? You can only use so many rooms at a time. As long as you have A PLACE where you can go and be alone when you want to, shouldn’t the space be available for many?
An alternative understanding of this is to understand A PLACE not as a fixed geographical location but more of a concept. Instead of having one space where all of this goes on, you organize multiple locations to carry out various tasks. For example, at Jojo’s house we make and eat delicious food on Wednesday. On Fridays, we do that at Kenny’s. Sunday, we go to Stephen’s house for amazing cuisine. For creative projects, Kat and Derek have access to workshops where we can meet for building stuff out of wood, metal or plastics. Eric has access to automotive and bicycle repair shops. In the middle of all of this, we all agreed to one community garden to which we lend our time and rent plots for growing vegetables, except for the vegetables we grow in Kat’s backyard and in the really sunny room in Kenny’s apartment. All of these examples are hypothetical, but I think it could work. I’m looking for A PLACE. Maybe this is the best option.
I want to have A PLACE in the city where I can get together with friends and like-minded individuals.
I want to prepare and eat food that we can enjoy and appreciate, food we can feel good about eating.
I want to watch films in this space, have discussions, keep it clean, make music, grow food, preserve food, work on art-mechanical-and-building projects (re-purposing)...and, then, go on trips out of the city to be a part of nature: the beach, the mountains, the rivers, hills, caves, farms, lakes, small towns, festivals, and so on.
A PLACE is where you go any time you want to be around intelligent, caring, life-loving individuals. A PLACE is where you can contribute freely, without expectations. A PLACE is for the time before work, after work, or even telecommuting to work. You can relax in A PLACE: it’s like a home or Cheers. We all need A PLACE.
It seems to me this kind of stuff usually occurred in homes or social clubs. My grandparents house was A PLACE where I could go for this kind of freedom. The trouble was, it was three hours away from the city. It wasn’t an easy option before, and it’s not an option now.
It is difficult to re-create this space in the city because it demands precisely that: space. To some degree what I have described could be understood as an artists loft or a communal living arrangement. Others would see it simply as a house you buy for yourself and where you live with your family. Two problems with understanding this as a house: first and easiest, I don’t have a family; second, having space to do these things doesn’t mean you automatically create a community of individuals to share the space with. You have to invite people into your life. When you view it through the lens of “having one’s own house” you make the invitation to enter the house conditional: “I want you to come in and enjoy all that the space has to offer, but of course as you do so, you must recognize that this all occurs because of my great benevolence, my great favor to you. Everything that happens should be okay in my book.” This is a horrible principle to start from when you want to create an open space where individuals feel free to respond and interact out of their own desires and creativity. Besides, what are you going to do with all of that space on your own? You can only use so many rooms at a time. As long as you have A PLACE where you can go and be alone when you want to, shouldn’t the space be available for many?
An alternative understanding of this is to understand A PLACE not as a fixed geographical location but more of a concept. Instead of having one space where all of this goes on, you organize multiple locations to carry out various tasks. For example, at Jojo’s house we make and eat delicious food on Wednesday. On Fridays, we do that at Kenny’s. Sunday, we go to Stephen’s house for amazing cuisine. For creative projects, Kat and Derek have access to workshops where we can meet for building stuff out of wood, metal or plastics. Eric has access to automotive and bicycle repair shops. In the middle of all of this, we all agreed to one community garden to which we lend our time and rent plots for growing vegetables, except for the vegetables we grow in Kat’s backyard and in the really sunny room in Kenny’s apartment. All of these examples are hypothetical, but I think it could work. I’m looking for A PLACE. Maybe this is the best option.
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