Готовый перевод Мы строим деревню / we are building ecovillage: решение

decision

In a week I had been packing my trunks.

And suddenly I knew that one suitcase

was enough for me.

Sergey Dovlatov

Now I would like to reflect on what can happen in the mind of a person who is going to join a community. As I said before, the only sphere I'm competent to judge is my own life, that's why I'm going to describe the process based on my personal experience. Before making a decision to move I had passed some smaller tests.

1) The 1st question to ask for such a confirmed citizen as I am was if I want to live in the city all my life long or not. I guess that's actual for the majority as most of settlements are citizens initially. My answer was "no" and that was the beginning of search for a place to move to.

Actually there was one another moment, on the Kurils, about 6 years ago - suddenly I understood that I wanted to live closely to the nature. It's an interesting point that such a desire had appeared prior to the desire to escape from the city. Trere're 2 ways of motivation: "to" something and "from" something. Some people have such a strong aspiration "from" that they even forget where they really want to go "to". But a purposeless escape is like trying to buy at the station a ticket "somewhere from here". "Somewhere" may turn out not the destination you dream of... So, the best way to get what we want is to understand our desires clearly.

2) Finally all these scattered thoughts have crystallized into the idea about a community. Life in an ordinary village didn't seem as attractive for me, though it was very easily realizable, I even had a house: just come and live! And there was one question more. I should decide if I wanteed to arrange something myself or join any existing community. Firstly I had an idea to find some land and build a new ecovillage there - but thanks God it was no more than a sudden whim. And I began to search for something that has at least some basis.

Most people also decide to join I guess, as not everyone is able to organize and not everyone even needs it. Otherwise the amount of villages could become too large, not commensurate with people's needs.

3) After that I started to evaluate different settlements and search for an answer if it suits me. I realized that it was really difficult. As for me, I spent about 5 years to make a right decision. В ТЕЧЕНИЕ

4) Fourthly, I decided everything and stopped to look for anything and started to wait for some sigh, which can clarify me the situation. As a result of this waiting I got the information that there is an organization of some village. So I went there. And I was already prepared for everything.

It is interesting which influence on the society have people who started to organize everything, as the result they set the tone and direction for the whole future team. They openly or secretly are the bearers of rules, culture and they translate to everybody the knowledge about how the society should be in the future. Whether they want it or are aware of it or not, but it is very important thing, especially at first stages.

That’s why it`s a good way to know “the truth” about any society: to get acquainted with its founder or founders. It can be enough to understand does this company suit you personally or not. It often happens this way: you can communicate with many participants for a long time, talk with them and then see the founder and understand all at once. This exactly how it happened to me.

In our case the founders are first of all those who found the land and decided that it “would be good place to create a village!”.The other strived after them. Then the main active core appeared around these first followers. I can’t explain how but a pair of seconds was enough for me to understand that I`m ready to do with these people anything. For example to build a village and live there.

Переведено на Нотабеноиде
http://notabenoid.org/book/45942/183468

Переводчики: grechissimo, Yanne, ivanovishe