In the news today, a research company has published its findings on the state of mind of Australia’s population. Contrary to the story we are told via advertising, media and politicians Australian’s are happier the more rural and less materialistic their lifestyles.
The study measured standard of living, health, achievement in life, personal relationships, sense of safety, connection to the community and future security and found Wide Bay, the Frazer Island region, came out on top - despite being found at the bottom of other surveys that measure employment, income, education and economic strength.
The researchers found Australia does not have extremes of wellbeing, but that most of the top-scoring electorates had low population density, more women, more people older than 55, less income inequality and more married people.
There was one high scoring region found in the middle of a city. Melbourne, said to be the most livable city is home to Higgins, the only truly metropolitan region in the top nine. Peter Costello, of all people, being the local MP, says “People in Higgins have a wonderful community spirit and a high degree of voluntary activity…Community spirit is the greatest contributor to happiness.”
The dictionary tells me a “Community” is a unified body of individuals with sharing, participation, and fellowship as its central themes. Living in Byron Bay, and working on the internet, I’m likely to hear or read this term at least 100 times a month. It’s the buzz word of the decade. However, when people tell me they aim to ’start one’ or ‘live in one’, the word takes on a new meaning.
People have been experiementing with living in ‘communes’ since the 60s. These communities were not tied by blood or marriage but by ideals both secular and non secular. Many people say that the commune style living didn’t work. I don’t agree. Looking for utopia in a world living outside the laws of nature is what doesn’t work. Sure communes busted up all over the place, not many surviving to this day, but the incredible creativity that it took for a bunch of baby boomers to learn to live together and share was the reward.
The last 40 years has seen some incredible changes in the world, with scientific and cultural advances making it much easier to live in a rural community type setting.
My partner and I have been noticing for years how unrealistic it is to raise our three children in a nuclear family. Not only does it take up a lot more resources to live this way but we were all lonely. I needed women to share the children and the chores with. The kids needed more adults and to a lesser degree more children to fulfill their thirst for experience. My husband needed more men around so he could keep clarity of vision.
For years we dreamed, planned and worked toward getting some money together, buying the land and creating the community. Then we realised that doing it the other way around was probably a better idea. Long story short, we now rent 1.5 acres near Byron Bay with another family, a lovely poet and her two teenage daughters. We’re getting a practise run. We can’t really garden this land more that the odd bed of vegies because we don’t own it and it’s mostly sand (we’re near the beach). We don’t have long term security with the land or the other family. We don’t really have a specific set of ideals that bind us.
However, we are learning a lot. We’re learning what it takes to live in a lifestyle which is entirely natural, people have been doing it for thousands of years, but extremely difficult for us modern kids brought up in nuclear families in the 60s and 70s. Mostly the changes we are required to make are undoing of cultural biases toward sharing and fairness, giving and abundance and differing priorities in comfort. We agree that committing to circle regularly to talk these issues over is what will keep us together.
We haven’t made it to a truly rural setting yet and we’re not sure when we will so utopia seems to be out of our grasp right now. However, we’re not alone. The Urban Permaculture Guild is a wonderful source of information and inspiration designed to assist those in metropolitan areas live more aligned with nature. And the tool they use mostly is, of course, community. Here are some of their suggestions to create livable cities where we can grow our own food and live more intelligently in terms of community wealth and ecological impact.
- Building greenhouses and planting gardens in vacant lots.
- Turning our grass lawns into gardens that produce food and are aesthetically beautiful.
- Creating community by combining backyards with our neighbors, tearing down fences to create bigger parcels of usable land.
- Using the presence of buildings to cultivate plants that need partial shade or vertical climbing space.
- Designing a water catchment system on the roofs of our houses that can provide all the water needs for the garden.
Its a good start. Although It’s probably the hardest thing we can do, I really believe community living is the next step for both our survival and our spiritual evolution as a species.
About the Author...
Joanne Hay, Editor of Nourished Magazine, Chief Nourisher and Mother of three is very grateful to live in Byron Bay and be able to share all she has learned about Nourishment. She has trained as an Acupuncturist (unfinished), Kinesiologist (finished) and parent (never finished). She serves the Weston A Price Foundation as a chapter leader. She loves sauerkraut, kangaroo tail stew, home made ice cream, her husband Wes and her kids Isaiah, Brynn and Ronin (in no particular order…well maybe ice cream first).
Aug 17th, 2006 at 7:25 am
I firmly agree. Community is immensely important.
It’s quite striking how enormous modern cities, states, and nations have become. Most people who live in a modern city of average size do not feel connected to their larger community. Hence, at least in the U.S., incredibly low voter turnout, low morale, etc.
Your post makes me wonder just how much longer we can even sustain such vast communities.