Because it Takes a Whole Village
Self Determination
We are bringing something forth here that goes way beyond most of what people have come to expect. Eden is about giving Birth. This really is the full blown Sustainable EcoVillage Community we have all been waiting to arrive for so long. And it is for that reason that we want only the most deeply committed people on Earth here among us who really do have something to give. Too many others at this time we do not need. That just gets in the way.We are the creators
of a New Way of Life here. And you can see how it should work. We can take care of our own needs and a lot of other things will fall right in line with that. We do have something very real to offer here. But this is only for those
who have the real love and the real faith and the real spirit of Eden and who have a
real willingness to share in the exchange of resources and energies and a readiness to share in
the whole vision of full integration.
All Ways Prepared
It's not some empty promise of an easy ride for those who aren't yet ready to begin to stand on their own two feet. Some of us will need to wake up to some of our own very real responsibilities towards this community before we will be allowed to proceed any further into this idea that we are separately self created individuals who don't owe anybody anything. Eden is for those who can really be of some help to build the bridges into the very heart of the future and give birth to another world once we get there in a new land that could become Our Children's Land.What is True
We really do need to ask people to get down to the realities around here one time. I know it might have sounded like a sweet dream come true but that is not going to happen until you begin to happen for Eden. We will only play this exciting new game with a few good people of great integrity and even some incredible resourcefulness and even a bit of dazzlingly brilliance and some real pragmatic ingenuity. Money is not everything in Eden. But we must ask you all to prepare to become someone who could be of real and lasting value to our community. Dead weight can be picked up anywhere.Everyone here will try to help you to make the changes you need to make in your spending habits and we will help to wean you off all these addictions to all the plastic products of your Mother Culture.
We will all
be held accountable to these collectively unfolding new wave of real understandings
that will gradually begin to take the places of need and greed. And that
should be of some great relief for some of you who don't want to have to
become just another casualty of the careless lack of responsibility that you
may have grown accustomed to finding strewn about here and there on this
Earth that is fast becoming a junkyard.
Hopeful Perspectives
We cannot remain as hopeless as we have been taught to be and that others will take care of us if we are is going to be a lost cause. We cannot even begin to try to emulate Dominator Culture. Because it doesn't work. We are a New Beginning. That's why I would suggest that we always work only with the most positively minded people and the vast amounts of money that we can easily generate on a sustainable basis that normally flows right through our hands almost completely unnoticed. Disposable waste of economic resources becomes Recycled into being the equivalent of a new source of income.Micro-Economy
We can do all with the money that we have been allowing to go to feed the endless expansionism of the Global City Monoculture. All we have to do is divert that flow right back into our own Sustainable Micro-Economy until we reach a point where everything clicks into stasis.That's how it works. By putting energy into Eden we become free. Not by leaving ourselves wide open to the ravages of those who do better in a chaotic situation than in an orderly fair and just community.
Upset children
are sometimes doing that just to recreate their own natural habitat because that
alone is where they feel they can thrive better. New members do the
same thing. They are creating their own habitat within the Eden Project by
creating bad feelings and upsetting the peace. And messing up all that has been done at this point would be
second nature to some of these folks just like it is to the child. No Blame but
that is not what being a True Eden is all about.
Funding
Money alone does not make a Passive Solar Home. And that is not enough here. And it has never been enough for any real community to think it can base itself upon a Wrong Foundation. We intend to show how a group of people can fund themselves and work within their own resource flows.Some people think resources are static. But we know that they are dynamic. All the resources we need will be there on site and the rest of that comes from the combination of the resources of the many. But we do have to know how to collect and protect those resources.
Think about the folks at Trillium
for instance who had to endure extreme financial hardships caused by having
to buy-out some of the original members just because they had some growing
pains and parted ways.
That is only normal and should be expected. But it
was not. And that is where the problem came from and here is where it needs to be
prevented. And that needs to happen up front as it is here in Eden. Not later on. Later on doesn't work. Later on it could
tear us all apart. Later on it could break us all apart just like it almost did to the
fine folks at Trillium.
Disintegration
That is something that we could easily prevent right now with just a little bit of radical honesty and clear foresight all mixed in there with a little common sense. This is just very pragmatic. We are not trying to sell you on something or to reinvent the wheel. What is commonly believed is of little concern here since most of that is uncommonly false. You are now entering into the realities of Eden here a little bit and I do hope you are beginning to appreciate some of that. It does have a certain feel. It does have a certain sound. It does have a certain quality that is unique to Eden.Changes
We have just made a few changes here and there in this old new world so that Eden will never have to experience what the fine folks at Trillium went through. Read about that if you like in Community Magazine's Fall 2000 issue which you can get at www.ic.orgI do recommend that all other communities begin to emulate this kind of
an integrated vision in their own way who wish to join us in the larger vision that we are all just a small part of
that will be called the Emerald Forest.
We are going to have to go right on through some of these very real changes here in Eden too. Only we are going to do some of this up front and before the fact instead of after the fact.
We are a Forward Thinking People. Setting things up right is just something we're doing here to protect the people and the land and the integrity of this project. Other places like the Farm have also had to go through serious economic restructuring and property changes which can be a very painful process that we have carefully avoided. Eden is very much an innovator in these regards.
We just thought we'd do something a little bit different this time
around. Seems a lot of other stuff had already been done. Something that
can stand as an example for others to learn from does have to be something
better than what has gone before. It's not going to be about the further
subdivision of the Earth into a bunch of little pieces.
Freedom is not really Free
Freedom just means there is nothing to be bought and sold here in Eden that is Eden just things we have grown or made in Eden. That would endanger the entire vision to let the whole thing become fragmented.It's very much like the creation of an Eco-Logical Monastery. Homes are to be built. Fields are to be worked. Food is to be prepared. The Community Structures are to be built. No one individual is able to profit from it as it is a not for profit association that is there for religious purposes only.
The Monks do all the work and at their own collective expense. The flow of resources goes from the many into the Oneness of the Community and is held and managed by that community as an Not for Profit association organized in accordance with section 501 (c) 3 which means that all contributions will be tax deductible.
It is not to be redistributed back as that would only be a backflow. By law it is not for the profit of any one person. It has its own purpose. It may be Service Oriented. It may Spiritual. It may be Educational or it may be Charitable in nature. But it all remains with the community when anyone ever leaves.
It's all done in accordance with the wishes of the governing body of the Community and that is expected to be something that will outlive us all. Eden is a new beginning and a clear break from business as usual. Very much like an Eco-Logical Monastery. - T
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