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Second Journey, Inc.
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If you would like to submit articles or programs or event notices for publication in future issues of Itineraries or in Second Journey's e-News Bulletin,
e-mail us at the address above.
Second Journey is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit corporation
based in Chapel Hill, NC. |
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In this issue...
Innovators and Pioneers...
People and Models Shaping Aging in Community
Guest Editors Betsy Morris and
Raines Cohen share a personal and professional
interest in cohousing and the aging-in-community
movement The husband and wife team live in
the Berkeley (CA) Cohousing community and are partners
in the consulting firm, Planning for Sustainable Communities.
On November 12, they will host the upcoming Positive
Aging Conference at the satellite viewing location in
Berkeley; they regularly exhibit at American Society on
Aging (ASA) conferences and write about related issues
on the Aging In Community Web site.
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This
Fall 2008 issue of Itineraries presents us
with a great opportunity (and challenge) to share our
passion and ideas
about community and the aging-in-community
movement.
A lifelong
passion for both of us, Raines
first experienced the power of community in the informal
networks known as computer user groups during the 25 years
he spent helping to create them in the Boston area, Bay
Area, and eventually across the US and
internationally. In the last 10 years, he has found that the same
skills were invaluable as he worked to create and sustain real-world communities, cohousing neighborhoods where people
create homes together that combine both privacy and connectedness.
Betsy was
introduced to the world of community organizing and social
activism in Providence, RI. As a disillusioned college
dropout, she discovered the power of “we-ness” in a shared
household. Through the wider connections of friends,
lovers, and housemates, she encountered anarchists, radical educators, labor unionists, communists,
socialists, Catholic and Quaker peace workers, and
environmentalists. That led to a self-designed alternative
BA program in Urban Studies and Small Group Dynamics.
During the long period of study and work that has followed,
she has the sometimes inspiring
successes and the sometimes ongoing limitations of community-based efforts
to address poverty and social justice issues.
In all of
these settings, people are dealing with complex systems
necessary for their own sense of well-being. Empowerment
comes when people discover that by sharing information
and ideas and puzzling together, one's personal success and
the success of the greater whole merge. Everyone (seemingly) can
benefit from coming together. Passionate groups of users —
amateurs and professionals interacting freely in structured
settings — became a community of stakeholders with the
power to reshape the systems itself, first through voluntary
exchanges among themselves, and then by translating social
connections and trust into economic and political clout.
Community
creates relationships that differ from the relationships
created in market-oriented settings — where one competes
for maximum personal economic benefit in a series of
short-term exchanges — and in state or power-oriented settings
— where individual actions are circumscribed by
hierarchical systems of authority. For us, the
power and attraction of community is in strong contrast to these
two other major institutional spheres.
In the
articles in this issue of Itineraries, Dorit Fromm explores the
growing role of non-governmental organizations in northern
Europe where innovation is sparking new approaches to
community in later life.
Raines
Cohen catches up with the senior cohousing movement's prime
instigator, architect and author Chuck Durrett, in a
wide-ranging interview.
Rabbi
Zalman Schachter-Shalomi calls for an attitude of caring — "paying it forward — which strengthens the bonds of community.
Second Journey's "sage-in-residence"
John G. Sullivan peeks "Behind the Veil of
Separateness," exploring community in his usual
thought-provoking manner..
And last,
but not least, Barbara Kammerlohr looks at two recent books about conventional
"retirement communities"
which provide a sharp contrast to some of the ideas our
contributors present.
This issue
also publishes a new
Foreword to Ted Roszak's new book, The Making of
an Elder Culture, the first installment of which debuts
online this month.
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Touching Life's Later Years with
Nobility and Intellectual Excitement
 In
ever greater numbers, we are aging beyond the values
that created the urban–industrial world. That fact
begins with the boomers, but it will roll forward into
generations to come... Which means that every
institution in our society will be transformed as its
population drifts further and further from competitive
individualism, military–industrial bravado, and the
careerist rat race. It is as if the freeways of the
world will one day soon begin to close down, starting
with the fast lane and finally turning into pastures and
meadows.
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Theodore Roszak is the author of 15
works of nonfiction, including The Making of a Counter Culture,
Person/Planet, and The Voice of the Earth
and five novels. |
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Open Arms:
Embracing Generations and the Larger Community
 With a limited window of time, Northern Europeans have already started creating
exciting alternatives that include a multi-generational approach
to senior housing. Instead of concentrating exclusively on facilities for the elderly, the focus is on strengthening neighborhoods. The results so far are a variety of senior-friendly developments that also embrace other generations... |
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Dorit Fromm is an architect who writes, researches, and consults on innovative communities, design, and aging.
She is the author of Collaborative Communities: Cohousing, Central Living and Other New Forms of Housing, |
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An interview with Charles Durrett
Senior Cohousing: The First Three Years
 One can argue that cohousing has already affected much of the housing market—for example, the design elements in multi-family affordable housing that intentionally encourage neighbor interaction. Or, another example, single-family neighborhoods, where the residents of a street can vote to close the whole street to cars, create kid-play areas in the middle, and require people to park at both ends. A change like that vastly alters the behavior of residents and how well they know each other...
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Architect Charles Durrett
has designed over 30 cohousing communities in North America and has consulted on many more around the world. This wide-ranging interview
by Guest Editor Raines Cohen touches all the bases. |
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Paying It Forward: Socially Active, Engaged Elders
 Awhile back, a group of friends and I discussed the amount of political and social activity necessary to support the environment, the earth and her people. We looked at all the activities required to take an active role in guarding the health of the planet and speaking up for her people. Who would write letters? Who would write emails? Who would organize us to voice our opinion and influence lawmakers closer to home?...
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Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi is the
author of the seminal book on aging, From Age-ing to
Sage-ing: A Profound New Vision of Growing Older. |
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Awakening to Community:
Beyond the Veil of Separateness
The people were rapidly approaching starvation in the midst of plenty. Then, as if prompted by a collective dream, they started to feed one another. The lesson was clear. If one only tended the circle of oneself, emptiness grew. If each fed a neighbor, then — in this expanded circle — all would be well...
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Author-philosopher John G. Sullivan
is a member of the Second Journey Board of Directors and
author of Living Large: Transformative Work at the
Intersection of Ethics and Spirituality. |
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A Closer Look at Senior Retirement Communities
Second Journey Book Page editor, Barbara Kammerlohr, reviews recent two books — Leisureville and A Place Called Canterbury — that are required reading for any “young” retiree tempted to leave their home of many years for the promise of a life-time of resort living. |
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The conference will feature experts and thought leaders including Richard Bolles, author of What Color is Your Parachute?; Richard Leider, author of Something to Live For and founder of The Purpose Project; Harry R. Moody, Director, Academic Affairs for AARP; and Dan Buettner, explorer, educator and author of The Blue Zone: Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who Live the Longest.
More Information. |
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Second
Journey, Inc.
4 Wellesley Place, Chapel Hill, NC 27517
(919) 403-0432 |
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Second Journey, Inc. is a 501(c)(3)
tax-exempt nonprofit corporation |
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Second
Journey approaches its benchmark 10th anniversary having
successfully avoided collisions with “industry giants” like AARP… and having prospered modestly. In all those years we have not
taken the step we are taking now as we announce a major fund-raising effort whose goal is to put the organization on more
sustainable footing. We have not— until now — had that
convergence of opportunities to help us build the resources to
insure that our
"mule and wagon" continues beyond my tenure on the
buckboard.
