The March Hare: Fall '03
Issue 38

Rabbit dens: under construction! * Thanks readers! * Life in a fishbowl * Member Bio: Ted * Ecovillage map * Sustainability, and hard work * Recovering wilderness on the prairie * Nature Corner * Chicken to go

Sustainability, and Hard Work
by Penn Taylor

As I reflect on the past few months of life at Dancing Rabbit, I can't help but dwell on the enormous amount of work that goes into this project of creating a sustainable ecovillage, and how it seems impossible to separate that work from the work that goes into our individual lives. When you grow your own food, build your own buildings, create your own entertainment, and take responsibility for your life how it affects other lives both materially and emotionally, how can you separate livelihood from life?

Many advocates of "simple living" speak of this integrated lifestyle in which there is no separation between life and livelihood as a desirable thing, a good thing, a thing to work toward. Many other people advise that the way to keep one's sanity is to maintain a firm separation between life and livelihood--to never say or think (or act as though), "I'm an accountant," but to always say and think something closer to, "I'm an interesting person with a full life, and oh yeah, I pay the bills by being an accountant during the day."

I think that both camps are living in an idealized world. I like having more integration between my life and livelihood than I did before I moved to Dancing Rabbit; on the other hand, I look forward to the day when the two are not so bound together as to be inextricable. The sheer amount of thought and work that goes into living here can be maddening, in large part because it feels inescapable. I hope that as our village grows and we all get more experienced at living this life we have chosen, we will find ways of balancing the desire for an integrated life with the need for an occasional escape from it. The road is tricky; wish us luck.

Rabbit dens: under construction! * Thanks readers! * Life in a fishbowl * Member Bio: Ted * Ecovillage map * Sustainability, and hard work * Recovering wilderness on the prairie * Nature Corner * Chicken to go