Catastrophe or Healthy Society? A Strategy for Both…

In 1999 I began visiting a rural farm in the Coast Range of western Oregon. Nestled in a quiet valley surrounded by fir, hemlock and cedar forests, Alpha Farm was founded as an intentional community in 1972 by Philadelphia Quakers. The community had been organized as an experiment in collaborative living by several families desiring an alternative to the urban, social and economic systems of the industrial northeastern US. By the time I visited for the first time, Alpha Farm had survived the rise and fall of the hippies, the “back to the land” movement, and the great wave of intentional community foundings and failings through the 1970’s and 80’s.

Exhausted by my corporate job, stressed-out, but hopeful, I came to this place to follow through on a deep desire to live a life closer to the earth, where the complexities of living were less connected to things, and more connected to beings. Believe me, community living is far from simple, but the challenges are generally of a scale resolvable by communication and collaboration at the scale of family, farm, or neighborhood.

Remember Y2K? I learned about the possibility of a societal collapse in a conversation with a fellow visitor to the farm in early 1999. As I had explored other options of living, such as purchasing our own farm, homesteading, or moving to a small town with my girlfriend and our children, I realized that Alpha Farm potentially met most of our needs. We had a lot to offer the community too, with our professional and life skills, able bodies, and willingness to learn. So, in the summer of that year we moved to Alpha Farm. What was my reasoning? If power grids failed, society’s infrastructure of information collapsed, and any of the other many systems doomed by Y2K’s immanent arrival actually happened, I and my family would be in a pretty good place. If none of that happened, we’d still be in a pretty good place.

Y2K didn’t happen the way many predicted. My family had an incredible 2 years of living in intentional community, which I may write about at another time. I write about this experience now, to share a worldview that made good sense to me at the time and still does. That is, when we live in alignment with nature, creating systems of self sufficiency in energy, water, food production and shelter, combined with connected communities and a sense of interdependence, we can all be in a pretty good place. When nature, governments, or technologies bring challenges that seem overwhelming to an individual or single family, a connected sustainable community has the potential capacity to ride these challenges and yes survive, but also, possibly, to thrive.

So, as director of an organization focused on aspects of a global community that are healthful, connective, sustainable and even regenerative, I support some positive ways of living that enhance life. If you follow current events and have a modicum of education, you may have noticed that there are challenges our society is facing that are becoming catastrophic. I have noticed. I also have a deep hope, rooted in experience, that together we are capable of creating positive change in the world. So, whether you are drawn to the sustainable systems practiced and taught by many of our members of the Natural Building Network because you fear coming catastrophes, or you desire to support the evolution of society into more positive ways of being and relating, alright. Follow through on what you learn here and you’ll probably have an interesting, inspiring journey and find yourself in a pretty good place.