Over the past year, two years, three years, people have asked why are you doing this. I’ve always had an answer, it sometimes changes. Or maybe there are so many reasons that it seems my answer changes, but it is actually only part of the whole. But as of late it has come up again. It is something that Ron Dart and Father Michael emphasized, and in trying times it is something that I ask myself. Why am I doing this. It’s good to revisit. It’s good to be certain. So here are some of my reasons.
When I moved home from California, I didn’t really have any friends. Maybe a few. When your that far removed, you don’t even really know where to find some like-minded folk. I realized that the strongest relationships I had were with people I’d lived with. Vonnegut said it well. “What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.”
Reason #1. To create a place that can facilitate real and lasting relationships. Exposure to new and different people. A home to welcome others.
When I came home from traveling I hated how our lives were built around aquiring stuff, building our career, and independence.
Reason #2. To fight the American dream, the culture of independence and self-promotion. To be able to live for less to save money and time to be able to put into relationships, art, music, and other endeavors. To create a culture that is alive, people that take risks and try new things.
These are perhaps the main reasons. The “ideal” that I hold onto. I love it when I look over these things and recognize how different aspects of it are being fulfilled. There is always more room for growth and change.
For me personally. I have found some ‘like-minded folk.” Sometimes it seems like I may have found more non-like-minded folk, but that is okay. Thats the exposure to different people. I’ve met and gotten to know many wonderful people, be it residents, short term visitors, long term visitors and those in the neighborhood. And I’ve gotten to engage in different projects just for kicks, utilizing the talents and interests of many of these wonderful people. I am excited to see what else takes place in these next years.
Amen to those goals, of not allowing individualism to take hold, and to be able to live for less. And to creating stable communities that combat the terrible disease of loneliness. If that is Atangard's raison d'etre, or at least part of it's raison d'etre, it has a bright future.