EVOLUTION STEP NO. 1: Create Collectives Near Home

I am in discussion with several amazing women, all from different areas of my life, about creating Collectives.

1. Plan Potluck dinners with your Friends and Neighbors

Some friends and I are talking about getting together once or twice a month over potluck dinners, so that we can talk about this stuff.  What are the simple changes we can make in our lives? What are the things that we can do immediately? And what if we had each other for support? We're going to invite others to join us. Maybe we can focus on a resource each evening and talk about how to cut down on its consumption in small but significant ways - like how to cut down our use of petroleum, or electricity, or water. Or how we can make simple changes to the ways we buy and eat food that will make a difference. We can recommend and read books to/with each other, and watch movies together and be an inspiration to each other. Because above all else, hope is a diminishing commodity in these trying times.

2. Talk about this stuff at your dinner table (with the people you live with).

Stacy is my new housemate. She just came back from 15 years of living in South America after having been in the Peace Corp when she was younger. She's my new soul mate. (I always thought that I'd one day like to be in the Peace Corp - the brain child of none other than JFK, a true visionary.) Stacy was married to a man down there, they had chosen not to have children, and separated last year. She's also a Quaker by birth,  attended a Quaker college, and still attends Quaker meetings.

Wikipedia says:

"The Religious Society of Friends is a name used by a range of independent religious organizations which all trace their origins to a Christian movement in mid-17th century England and Wales. A central belief was that ordinary people could have a direct experience of the eternal Christ. Today, the theological beliefs among the different organizations vary, but include broadly evangelical Christian, liberal Protestant, Christian universalist and non-Christian universalist beliefs. Some of these organizations also use the name Quaker or Friends Church."

Hm.

Anyways - because of her long absence, it's like she was up in the mountain for the last 15 years, and she's now come down, only to discover that the World has changed. Mostly, technology has changed. The Internet is new to her. It's really amazing to talk to her because she's reached a lot of the same conclusions that I've reached in my life - like choosing to not live in negativity, choosing a slower simpler life, being more conscious about the little things, and not having material wealth on the top of the list of her needs. But I utilized the Internet heavily to reach my conclusions. It's fascinating to know that she's lived her life up to now in a totally different part of the World without the benefit of the Internet, and she's still reached the same conclusions about our present predicament, and has similar ideas about what we need to do to lick the problem. I've already learned from her. We're talking about creating a Collective to run this farm house by inviting other, like minded-people to join us. As part of our daily lives, we're going to play with our relationships with food, and talk about how to be better humans.