I have a passion for etymology. Understanding where words come from and how they have been used over time gives me stronger command in using them.
Today's etymological lesson is about ecology and economics. Both words have their roots in the ancient Greek word 'oikos', which translates to mean 'house'. The Greek word for 'the study of' is 'logia' and Greek word for 'managing' is 'nomos'. So ecology is the study of the house we live in, and economics is the way we manage our house.
Understanding these two words sets the context for my vision of community.
To me, community revolves around the house. The common roof we share helps to bind us. The ultimate house we live in is the earth itself.
The heart of the community is the community center. At its simplest, a single structure or house where everyone in the community can physically gather. It extends out to all the conversations regarding the land we build on and how we will shape it. I have some ideas about this which I will share in another post.
The legal house under which the community will live, is as important as the physical house we dwell in. The agreed rules of engagement set the context and seal the container for all else that follows. This too shall be delved into with subsequent posts.
The cultural house we will build is a conversation that I have not, could not, begin to vision without knowing who I will be building with. This too will manifest with further discussion.
My specialty, my passion, my gift lies in the conversation regarding managing the house.
One of the best definitions of economics that I have come across:
"The allocation of scarce resources for competitive uses."
Whereas I don't want to have a drawn out discussion on the metaphysics of scarcity thinking, I do believe that resources are scarce and allocating them appropriately is a good skill to have.
I look at my own life and I see an ultimate scarcity of time. I was born and will die in a finite amount of time. I have to spend a portion of that time working to keep a roof over my head and food on the table. Moving up Maslow's 'Hierarchy of Needs', I also see that I seek to allocate my precious time between loved ones and personal development. I realize that this temporal juggling act is easier when done in partnership and in community.
In our modern society we have substituted the benefits of community with the fungibility of money. A classic example of this is when I first moved to the rural area I live in now, after leaving a thriving social community in the city. I had forgotten about the increased distance between my home and the nearest gas station. Needless to say, I ran out of gas. Most people in the country could walk over to a neighbor's house and ask to borrow some fuel or get a ride into town. Since I was a newcomer and had not paid my dues to develop community I was stranded. I was lucky enough to have paid my dues to roadside assistance, and within an hour, I was back on my way.
The temporal juggling act may be easier when one makes more money - since it takes less time working to pay for the essentials, but the quixotic chase to make more and more money becomes all consuming.
In ancient society, loss of wealth or material goods was not the worst that could befall an individual- it was ostracism. Over time we have replaced community with money, and now the fear of not having enough money is a source of huge dis-ease in our society. It could be argued that this underlying anxiety drives us to consume more and more.
Community is a means not only to reduce the resources needed to live, but to reduce the pecuniary anxiety of modern society.
Community is economies of scale. Cooking for ten is more productive than ten people cooking for one. Raising 5 children takes less effort than 5 people each raising one child.
Once again as I look up the 'Hierarchy of Needs', I see people who have a home in the mountain, a beach house, as well as their primary dwelling with a myriad of huge rooms. So much space wasted. So much space taking up time. I am not opposed to us having a house in the snow, a house in the sun, and home where we mainly do our living, but we are sharing that burden together. I don't envision my community decomplexifying to an agrarian frontier existence. I see people who are integrated with modern society but reducing their ecological footprint while expanding their cultural and intellectual outreach.
Something that can become scarce in community is privacy. This is a conversation that needs to be continued at a later date, but I mention it because in managing my house, I need to manage my well being. I need space to regenerate in order to generate my participation in community. This is part of my allocation of my precious time resource to myself. How a community handles the individual is often a by-product of all the 'together' conversations.
In my next post I will elucidate where all my discussions have come thus far. Thanks for the wonderful comments and I look forward to all the amazing conversations.
