Communities #189
Winter 2020
Note: You can order a copy of this issue here.
This issue describes how communities and communitarians have dealt with the unexpected changes the COVID-19 pandemic has brought about on their group and personal lives. Authors share tales of hardship, adaptation, inconvenience, dedication, distress, appreciation, and often a firmer grounding than ever in the choice to live in community and/or to prioritize “community” in their lives. Groups share their strategies for coping and the unexpected gifts this altered reality has brought, along with the fault lines it has revealed. The pandemic has put us all simultaneously in the same and different boats; these stories explore how we can navigate the currents together.
COMMUNITY IN THE AGE OF CORONAVIRUS
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More Front Notes: Story Sharing; Authors’ List; Gratitude; Dancing in Dangerous Times; Alternative Cover Candidates; Capitalization Dilemmas
Notes from the Editor: The Year that Changed Everything by Chris Roth
The Editor endures the roller-coaster ride of 2020—not just theoretically, as a spectator or an article curator—and shares a personal update about family, community, and more than you may want to know.
We Still Have Toilet Paper: COVID-19 Pandemic Response at Twin Oaks Community by Stephan Nashoba
Crisis situations like this are full of contradictions. We see both the worst and the best in people. We feel both cabin fever and cozy togetherness. We have both scarcity and abundance.
Gifts of the Pandemic: Voices from Glenora Farm Community by Alicia, Benjamin, Lisa, Veronika, Adola McWilliam, and Lucinde Metcalfe
Isolation can bring a sense of safety, togetherness, and offer an opportunity to be who we really are and to do things we consider important. It can make our lives easier, truer, gentler on the earth, and even more cheerful.
The Rainbow Gathering and COVID-19: How a physically dispersed anarchist community addressed the pandemic by Karin Zirk
If you have to meet on the land, and you cannot do that without creating unsafe conditions in a pandemic, then what? Amidst many diverse viewpoints and voices, enter Om From Home.
Pandemic Practices by Meridith Owensby
Our community’s existence and practices have served to preserve joy and hope during this pandemic season. We have even found ways to embrace new life rhythms together.
Pulled Toward and Away: How C-19 Has Elevated the Attraction of ICs but Pulled Us onto Screens by Colin Doyle
At the same time as community members appreciate their simple blessings more, their friends in a neighboring area or relatives back home are more atomized than ever, sadly separated.
Glimpses of the Future by See
This is the future, just as it is our past: Impromptu community, strangers, friends, family, neighbors, and intentional, chosen community, coming together to protect and support each other.
Coronavirus Adaptation in an Urban Community: Applying Difficult, Effective Precautions at Jesus People USA by Lyda Jackson
JPUSA has found that when facing great challenges, opportunities for even greater creativity arise. The pandemic has demonstrated the necessity for community and connection in the world at large.
Two Elders Locked Down in Ecuador by Rev. Jacqueline Zaleski Mackenzie, Ph.D.
We had no idea when we moved that we had chosen the best possible location, during a worldwide pandemic, for a retired couple to be located. The reasons are varied and nearly all positive.
How Have Intentional Communities Fared through the Pandemic? by Cynthia Tina
Some rural communities report being basically unaffected or even experiencing positive changes since coronavirus, while other more urban communities have found themselves especially challenged.
Coronavirus Response in Cohousing by Indra Waters
On the cohousing-l listserv, participants discuss how their communities can best deal with the new circumstances we all now face.
A Cooperative Option for Seniors in the Age of COVID-19 by Deborah Altus
The sense of community spirit and connectedness appears to be sustaining the co-op and allowing its members to weather the pandemic more effectively than those living on the outside.
Pursuing a Community Dream by Rachael Love Cohen
Cue COVID. Our local playgrounds were cordoned off; our beaches closed. “It’s time,” I heard myself whisper. “It’s time to take the leap.” I understood that my calling was not just to carry the vision, but to implement it.
From Five Earths to One, Part Three: Transforming Our Economy by Jan Spencer
Our society and economic system need radical shifts to bring out the best in us and to help us exist within the boundaries of the natural world. The virus suggests that we may be up to the task.
Community Economics: Opening Pandemic’s Box by Laird Schaub and Terry O’Keefe
If you have ever thought about starting a community-based business, there may never have been a better time than right now.