[bestwayfarms] Re: Betterway
- From: "Jean L Austin" <jaustin@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Kip and Beth Gardner" <kipandbeth@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2007 19:30:06 -0400
[bestwayfarms] Re: BetterwayBeth,
I have been trying to put together a reply to you last e-mails to no avail. I
do not want you to think that I am not aware of or have stopped caring about
the group and the hopes and goals of all involved. It does seem that in the
past year or so I have come face to face with my personal energy limitations.
Perhaps it is one of the goals of the prevailing society to keep everyone so
busy and exhausted that they really don't have time or energy to make
fundamental chages to their lives or the society as a whole. On the other hand
my own personal struggles with having a home and garden to care for alone as
well as a full time job that is physical in nature makes me keenly aware of the
potenital benefits of belonging to a community of like minded individuals
working together for a better life for the group. What you are trying to do is
an important and powerful thing and I hope it can continue to move forward.
Blessings always,
Jean
----- Oriinal Message -----
From: Kip and Beth Gardner
To: Betterway Core Group:
Cc: bestwayfarms@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Monday, July 16, 2007 8:47 AM
Subject: [bestwayfarms] Re: Betterway
Dear all,
Thank you for the responses I've received since the last email. I now
know that my messages are being received (on the computer I am never entirely
sure :)).
I know that when I posted my vision I didn't talk a whole lot about
my physical requirements for land. Mostly they include enough land for seperate
housing, recreational and farming space, preferably with some trees or water
source, and must be within commuting distance of both Canton and New
Philadelphia, and within close proximity to a town (large town) or city (such
as Wooster.) My vision focused on the other aspects of community which are more
definitive of community for me. If my life situations were different I could
probably thrive in an urban community fine as well, but that would not meet our
family's needs or address upcoming sustainability needs in this changing world.
I also didn't post what I'm willing to commit to move this process
forward. I am willing to continue hosting meetings if people will attend. I am
willing to try to get some formal facilitation training and help facilitate
meetings if the group wants me to and/or no one else steps up (I feel like I've
tried to facilitate by default instead of by group decision sometimes.) I am
willing to continue to educate myself about communities ( although Kip and I
have been doing that for many years) and and willing to take one issue the
group needs to learn about and research it to the best of my ability (if each
of us did this we could cover a whole lot of ground.) I am also willing to be
putting some amount of money towards then process on a regular basis if we
create a mechanism for doing that.
Maybe just as importantly, here's what I can't do right now. I can't
put in large amounts of money, because we just don't have it. Emotionally, I
can't continue to attend or hold meetings where 4 or 5 of us talk in circles
and say we can't do anymore because we don't have enough people. I can't
continue to have meetings with no agenda or where we agree to proposals that we
don't follow through with between meetings.
If we are to move forward someone else needs to propose the next
meeting times, as I just can't. Likewise, someone else needs to state where
they feel we should go from here, as I'm just too emotionally invested right
now, possibly to the detriment or neglect of other aspects of my life and I
need to take a couple of steps back for the moment. I am not speaking for Kip,
just myself.
Sincerely, Beth
From: Kip and Beth Gardner
Date: 7/12/2007 7:55:54 AM
To: Betterway Core Group:,
Subject: Betterway
Dear All,
I don't really know how to start this email so please bear
with me. I have tried really hard to sit on my hands since the last
email I sent and see what the group is thinking about moving forward.
We seemed to be having trouble getting people to meetings, sometimes
even when we all (all present) sat together and picked out a date.
It's really difficult to move forward by having meetings when the
meetings are made up of Kip, myself, and 2 or 3 others. So Kim
graciously and usefully put us on the freelists email group so that
we could all communicate and get discussions of key issues moving on
email. Nothing seems to have happened there. At the last meeting we
("we" at meetings always refers to those who showed up) agreed we
needed a starting point and asked everyone to contribute the answers
to 2 questions (what were their minimum requirements or vision of
community and what commitments were they willing to make to move the
process forward.) This was nearly 3 weeks ago. I'm the only one who's
posted. It wasn't even my idea, although I thought it was a good one.
I also posted a list of items before our last actual meeting that
we've discussed addressing but have never actually addressed or
finished and had absolutely no response.
Look, I know it's Summer. I know that everyone is busy. I
know that we are trying to build a new way of living while living the
lives we are in, so I'm really not trying to blame. Kip and I have
been at this full-time for 5 years. I feel better about this small
core group now than any other group formation we've had. I really
like all of you and when we are together and focused (or together
just hanging out) it feels so right and seems like we could really
make it happen. But in-between nothing seems to be happening and we
just aren't going to get there by meeting once a month! Yes, it's
hard. In Creating A Life Together Dianna Christian says that some
people living in communities said "Don't tell them just how hard it
really is, no one will try."
Please don't take this to mean that I want people to make a
firm decision right now that you are "in" or "out", and I don't want
anyone dropping out of the process because they feel pressured. If we
worked REALLY hard at this we probably still wouldn't be ready to
purchase land for a year. But how can we do this if we can't even
examine in a concrete way what we want from community and what we
want to give to the process and the community once formed.
I will speak for just myself here. Kip and I do have a "plan
B", seeing if we could find a smaller piece of land with just a
couple of other households, including someone who wanted to farm with
Kip. I could live with it, but it's not really what I want, it's not
my dream of community. But Kip and I are going to have to do
something soon or we will lose our chance to raise Hannah in the
country, for Kip to farm, for us to live consciously in a different
way. I want to see community happen not just for us but because it's
the right thing for this area and people right now. I believe this
group could do it, but I don't know if we will do it.
Please think on this. I'm sorry if it sounds like a rant, I
don't mean for it to, but I needed to put this out there. And I
really need some sort of feedback (through our personal email or the
list, I don't care) and to know if I'm sounding unreasonable or if
anyone else sees it his way.
Sincerely, Beth
--
North Canton, OH
--
North Canton, OH
Other related posts:
