The March Hare: Spring '06
Issue 47

Project Season • Speaking "Rabbit" • Peggin' and Lashin' • Rainwater on Tap • Top Down Fire • Missouri Heights

How to Speak "Rabbit"

by Jenn Rabbit

I was a little alarmed the first time I heard Rabbit- speak in casual conversation. Hearing someone use the phrase "commie bike" led me to think that people here had anthropomorphized their property to the extent that they assumed that their bicycles had their own political beliefs. (I remember fumbling with what I was supposed to say: "Oh, most bikes I've met before have been capitalists or socialists.")

As is frequently true of almost any subculture or counterculture, Dancing Rabbit has to a degree created its own language-a politically correct, fun-to-hear blend of creative neologisms* and unique phrasings. Although, like many new Rabbits, I was confused at first by the number of newfangled expressions I came across, I was only here for two or three months before I found myself unconsciously speaking Rabbit-in fact, there are some things that I started saying frequently without even realizing they were sayings I had picked up in community!

One of the most well-known words heard at DR and other intentional communities (and, rarely, elsewhere) is the term co. Co is a gender-neutral term used here as both a noun and a pronoun. It can substitute any gendered pronoun such as him, her, he, she, his, or hers. It's particularly useful in situations when the gender of a person is unknown, such as in the sentence "I think there's a guest coming next week, but I'm not sure of co's name." It can also be used as a noun in place of words that limit according to gender-"young woman" and "you guys" become "young co" and "you cos", respectively.

Another word whose use seems to be limited to community is commie, which I mentioned in the first paragraph. In spite of what it sounds like, calling an item

commie does not mean that anyone is making assumptions about its economic practices. It instead denotes that an item is communal, or for public use. For example, one of Dancing Rabbit's homegrown songs requests that people not use commie towels after petting Maya (Tamar's dog), who often hangs around the compost bins.

That brings us to a third colloquial word: humey. Humey is a modification- a pet name, if you will- of the already-obscure term humanure, popularized by Joseph Jenkins, author of The Humanure Handbook. Humanure itself is not exactly a typical dinner-time discussion topic, but it's as much a part of life here as cooking, eating, and talking.

Another local favorite is the phrase woo-woo. Since DR does not have a group religion, it is very diverse spiritually, so we have a wide spread of people varying from New Age eco-spiritualists to rational, down-to-earth atheists. The term woo- woo, used by both ends of DR's spiritual spectrum, is a teasing word that refers to flowery, illogical spiritual practices. For example, some here might consider faith- based healing, seasonal magick, and group rituals to be too woo-woo for their taste.

DR's unique vocabulary includes several other characteristic colloquialisms. Zimmerman's, the Mennonite-owned grocery store in Rutledge, is also known as Zimmy's, Zimco, or Zimmerco's, while the workers of the Rutledge Garage are often referred to as the Rutledge Boys. Almost everyone shortens United Natural Foods, Incorporated, who supplies bulk organic food, to UNFI (pronounced Un-Fee) and many shorten Red Earth Farms to R.E.F. or sometimes Ref. Most Rabits can also be heard using the word memdem to refer to the Memphis Democrat, the local newspaper that publishes our weekly correspondence column.

In addition to DR's unique words, there are some sentence structures heard infrequently outside of Dancing Rabbit that can be heard almost daily here. Because we strive for nonviolent communication, it's much more common to hear someone say that they have issues or concerns about something that triggers them than to hear them say that something makes them angry. You'll often hear Rabbits talk about processing problems that they're dealing with, and it's not at all uncommon for people to offer others reassurance with phrases like "I hear your concern about..." or "I hear you expressing..."

It may sound a little woo-woo, but I believe that there's a certain kind of primal connection that very few people in the outside culture have that is enabled by the of a local, community language. A sort of magic can come from having a that includes obscure, arcane words and phrases limited to a small of people- a subtle but daily reminder to each of us that we share a common and a common dream.

Project Season • Speaking "Rabbit" • Peggin' and Lashin' • Rainwater on Tap • Top Down Fire • Missouri Heights