Back to "Civilization" ... for a bit.

Mac here -

Our visit to Dancing Rabbit now done,  we're here at Jenny's dad's house in St. Louis where many of the pleasures of modern society are readily available.  As I write this entry, Sportscenter is on in the background, (Lakers got swept?) and although it's interesting to catch up a bit on the world of sports, TV is much less distracting than the things going on at Dancing Rabbit.  Jenny has done a great job of keeping the blog up to date, whereas I found it hard to sit in front of the computer and write while we were at DR.  I was just having too much fun with the awesome people there.
Yesterday was filled with good bye hugs and promises on our part to come back.  I think it probably happens fairly often that people leave DR after their visitor period with genuine intentions of coming back there to make a life, and then get caught up watching Sportscenter or something similar and never make it back.  I hope that is a trap we don't fall into - The simple life of Dancing Rabbit was something that was very appealing to our family, and the allure of the consumer culture is something that I don't want to water down our memories.
Our trip out of DR was an interesting and gradual insertion back into that consumer culture.  First we passed small farms and then small towns with single red lights and tiny schoolhouses.  Dirt roads turned into gravel roads, then paved,  next a highway, and finally an interstate.  Before we parted ways with our DR escort we stopped at a gas station, and although we were in a very small city compared to where we started,  it felt very large.  Advertisements hit you in a new way when you haven't seen one in a few weeks.  Pepsi billboards and signs for candy bars on sale seem wholly unnecessary.  When we reached the bus depot in Quincy IL,  CNN was on in the main room with the big scary boogyman , Osama Bin Laden rearing his ugly face and serving as the messenger for the corporatacracy - "Be scared - Buy shit - Trust the Authorities."  I want no part of the bullshit they're selling any longer.
On our bus ride from Quincy to St. Louis, we stopped for food and we got to experience what it is like for vegetarians to try to get a decent meal in the world today.   Our choices - Gas Station food (fuck that), McDonald's, or Hardees.  hmm. Decisions, decisions.  Luckily the Hardee's up here have a small mexican menu as well,  and I was able to order a bean and cheese burrito, Jen got a cheese quessidila, and Izzy, who hasn't made the decision to go veggie, got himself a chicken tender kids meal.   We rushed back to the bus so that we wouldn't get left, at which point I found out that what I really had ordered was a beef, bean and cheese burrito.   My opinion of true vegitarians has gone up immensely knowing the bullshit they have to put up with everyday just to get a meal that they feel comfortable eating.   I'm definitely not vegitarian enough to pass up a meal over some ground beef ,  and I had no ethical issues with demolishing those burritos in short order,  but I definitely felt the heaviness in my gut later on and honestly, it's a feeling that I can live without.  If nothing else comes from this trip,  my diet is changed forever.  Maybe I won't be a total vegetarian for life,  but I've had a realization that I just don't need as much meat in my diet as I once thought I did.
Our bus dropped us off here in St. Louis where we were picked up by Debbie, Jen's new step-mom, and basically treated like royalty.  Hot showers,  a warm veggie friendly meal,  and clean sheets in a warm bed for everyone.  During our residency interview at Dancing Rabbit , the question was asked "What will you miss about home?" At the time, it was a hard question to answer.  Very in love with the place we were at , it was hard to thing to think of what we were lacking.   However during my long, hot shower - I realized that a long, hot shower was probably the right answer.
Today we are washing and folding the three weeks of laundry that had built up on our camping trip, and then we'll put most of it back into our seabags so that we are packed and ready when the folks from East Wind Community show up to pick us up and take us there sometime today.  We actually had a long waffling back and forth discussion as to whether or not we should stick to our plan and go to this second community after all.  We were extremely happy with Dancing Rabbit as a place to call home,  and the argument was made to put all of our time, money, and energy into that option since we know that it will work.  Jenny and I had both been on both sides of the discussion which lasted over a week.  In the end, one of our friends said something that made a lot of sense. "It's better to regret something you've done than to regret something you haven't done." And so with that piece of advice in mind, we will bravely move forward on the second leg of our intentional communities tour.
East Wind's advantages seem clear to me - they have a well established cottage industry that provides employment along with all the main costs of life for all members.  Medical, dental, and optical insurance is there for everyone in their income sharing community.  Housing is provided - no more camping for us this week.  According to the people we've talked to,  East Wind's climate is going to be much more similar to what we're used to, and is located on a gorgeous piece of land.  
The disadvantages of East Wind however, seem much more of a mystery.  Their presence on the web is minimal, and leads us to believe that being an example or model to the greater world is not that big an issue to them, and that was a very appealing part of what DR is doing.  We worry a bit from things we have heard that alchohol is a large part of East Wind's culture.  I have made my living for the past three years mostly at bars and weddings,  and Jenny and I both drink moderately,  so I would be a hypocrite if we were to judge them for drinking.  But we are bringing our child into this place, and it's important for me to know that we're not going to be living in a place where out and out alcoholism is rampant.   Another thing that Dancing Rabbit may have as an advantage over East Wind is their style of governing.  DR practices consensus,  a form of government where nothing moves forward without it being a decision that all in the group can live with,  whereas East Wind practices straight forward, one man, one vote democracy.  Both of these style I believe are much much better than what I am used to in the consumer culture,  but consensus has been very appealing from the start to us.   Consensus governing builds up the idea within a community that everyone has a piece of the truth,  and everyone deserves their chance to be heard.  The respect amongst the people of DR for each other is tremendous, and is one of their greatest assets.  It may very well be that the same sense of community exists at East Wind within their democracy,  but we will only know once we get there and see for ourselves.
And so we will go forward, and we will see for ourselves if East Wind is the better fit for our family.  I surely believed going into this trip that it would be - but my fears of the economics of Dancing Rabbit are all but gone.  Their version of capitalism is nowhere near the 'dog eat dog' capitalism that CNN and Sportscenter are preaching to me - The respect for each other creates a very unique form of co-operative capitalism where competition doesn't really work the same as it does on 'Main Street.'  They are able to work together to create abundance where needed as opposed to the version of capitalism we are indoctrinated into where scarcity is not a bad thing; scarcity is a high profit market.  Income sharing at East Wind is still very appealing,  and starting this evening we'll get to see what kind of cooperation that it creates.
That's all from me from now - thanks for reading,  and more to come soon.  :0