Here’s Jules on what happens if you want to leave Twin Oaks Community…
Year: 2021
Inner Bosses
by Raven Glomus
One of the more famous books on cooperative businesses/horizontal structure is called No Bosses Here. In a real sense, all commune businesses are cooperative businesses, so that should be true of them as well. But once you start working collectively, particularly in settings with conscientious people, you will notice (and I think this is true of cooperative enterprises in general, but I have really seen it at work in communal settings), the folks who do the most work are driven by what I will call their inner bosses. Rather than there being no bosses, there are no external bosses. And some of those inner bosses can be pretty fierce.
Of course there are those who try to take advantage of the horizontal situation and try to do as little as possible. Communities like Twin Oaks, Acorn, and East Wind have what they call “labor quotas” where everyone has to work a set number of hours a week. But here at Glomus (and I’ve seen it in other places) everyone works as much as they want to–and most folks work pretty hard. (I will write more about quota vs other ways of communal working in the future.)
Still, what I have seen is folks with some pretty harsh inner bosses. They push themselves because they feel like they have to. They don’t want to let other folks down. They don’t want to look bad. They are sometimes very critical of themselves, feeling like they never do enough.
The question, of course, is how to achieve a balance. How to keep yourself working and getting things done, without being really hard on yourself. In many ways, the internal bosses aren’t that different from the external bosses. There are laissez-faire bosses who tolerate lazy workers and there are bosses from hell that never let up. And there are some fair, compassionate inner bosses that nevertheless motivate workers to get the jobs done–especially the jobs that really need to be done–and also help folks figure out which jobs are essential and which can be done whenever or not at all.
Unfortunately, unlike external bosses, where you can quit or they can be fired, inner bosses are much harder to get rid of. I watch people in communal business that drive themselves and can’t figure out a way to get out from under their bosses. Probably the most common difficult inner boss is called Guilt. That’s a terrible boss who often seems to have a pretty solid, permanent position.
Another difficulty is that those who are able to get rid of their cruel inner bosses (usually after a lot of therapy) often swing to the other extreme. Even communes that are very compassionate have trouble tolerating someone who isn’t willing to do much work (unless it’s very clear that the person is going through a particularly hard time or has an illness or disability). Developing a fair but persuasive inner boss is a lifetime of work.
In the meantime, the communes are full of truly demanding bosses. They are just internal.
Tofu, Sauerkraut, and Mushrooms
by Raven Glomus
Here’s a little recap of some of the recent posts on the Commune Life Facebook feed.
From the LEF Instagram site, I found this cute post of them making tofu and making a little dig at Twin Oaks at the same time:
And from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange:
You may have heard people talk about how good yogurt is for you because it contains probiotics. However there’s actually a variety of foods that are naturally fermented and contain these helpful organisms. When made at home, products like kimchi, certain pickles, kombucha, and even natural sodas are all chock full of probiotics. One of the easiest foods to ferment yourself is Sauerkraut.
Benefits of Sauerkraut
- It’s great for gut health.
The probiotics in sauerkraut helps keep your digestive system healthy. - Kraut is highly nutritious.
The fermentation process makes the vitamins and minerals in cabbage more accessible to your body. - It’s good for your immune system.
Many studies show having a healthy digestive system is important to having a healthy immune system. - It’s a great way to preserve and use extra cabbage.
It can last for months in the fridge or cold storage. - It may help improve your mood.
Some recent studies have led scientists to believe that there’s a connection between gut flora and a person’s mood. Eating fermented foods like sauerkraut may help you feel better physically and emotionally. - It’s simple to make.
Sauerkraut requires just 3 basic ingredients and there’s no fancy equipment needed!
Want to make your sauerkraut? Here’s what you’ll need to get started:
- Cabbage
- Kosher, pickling, or sea salt (non-iodized)
- Knife and cutting board
- Mixing bowl
- Clean jar or jars with lids
To begin rinse your cabbage and then set a few nice, whole cabbage leaves to the side (you’ll need one per jar). Then finely slice your cabbage. If you’re doing a lot of kraut you may want to use a mandolin vegetable slicer however I usually just use a knife.
If you were to read more on the most popular recipes on the internet, you’d know that a lot of recipes call for a specific amount of cabbage but you can use as much as you’d like to make and adjust your salt to the amount of cabbage you’re using. You should use approximately 1 1/2 tsp of salt for every quart of kraut you’re making.
Once you’ve sliced your cabbage, place it in a mixing bowl. Slowly add the salt while squishing the salt and cabbage together with your hands. The cabbage will begin to look slippery and shiny. Eventually there should be a good bit of juice (called brine) in the bowl. You should be able to see it run out of a handful of cabbage when you squeeze it. If you taste your cabbage, it should be pretty salty but not disgustingly so.
Then you can pack your cabbage into a clean jar. Start with a spoonful or handful at a time carefully packing each one into the jar to avoid any air pockets. You can use a clean spoon, your hand, a tamper, or a pestle. Leave at least an 1 1/2 inches of head space in your jar.
Use the cabbage leaf you set aside at the begin to cover the top of your kraut. You want all of your cabbage to be fully submerged. You can way your kraut down with a sterilized stone like I did for these pickles or if you have enough room you can use a little dish of water. You can also use a ziplock bag of water or a crock weight if you have one.
Place your jar or jars of kraut out of direct sunlight but somewhere you will remember to keep an eye on them. You kraut will need to ferment between 4-14 days. It will ferment faster in warmer temperatures. You should open your jar at least once per day to let out any gases that have built up. You don’t want your jar to explode. You may also need to pack the cabbage down if you notice any above the brine or any air pockets. If you notice a film on top of the brine you can just scrape it off. It won’t hurt you.
You’ll know your kraut is finished when it is more yellow than green and translucent. It’s flavor will get more intense the longer it ferments so how long you leave it is up to you. Once it’s finished you can store it in the fridge or a cool root cellar to stop fermentation.
Finally, from East Brook Community Farm:
Ask Me Anything about Twin Oaks
Here’s a nice introduction to Jules (who I will be posting a bunch more TikToks from) and the Twin Oaks Community.
Lower Your Expectations
by Raven Glomus
When I lived at the Ganas Community, I heard someone tell this story: Two new folks join the community about the same time. One is someone who says, “Wow, this community is amazing. It’s what I’ve been searching for all my life. I want to stay here forever.” The other one says,”This place is okay. I think I’ll try it out and maybe I’ll stay a year or so.” The person telling the story (a long time member of Ganas) goes on to say that usually, the first person ends up staying a few weeks before they become disillusioned and leave, and the second one often ends up staying for years.
One of the problems with folks wanting to join a community is that they bring all these expectations with them. When someone begins the visitor program at Twin Oaks Community, they are given a little guide about life at Twin Oaks entitled, “Not Utopia Yet”. This is a bit of a warning. No community is even near utopia. It says right in the guide: “We don’t pretend that this is paradise, or utopia, and if that is what you really want you will have to look elsewhere…” Except that I don’t think that there is an elsewhere.
Most communities have all the problems of the larger society, because they constantly have people coming and going. I have written about this before in a piece on this blog entitled “Aspirational Egalitarianism”, which, while not as popular as the pieces we have on starting communes, still tends to show up in the top twenty-five posts even though I wrote it three years ago. The difficulty is that, because communities often aim higher, new members think they should be better than they are. This leads to disenchantment and departure.
Some folks assume that the problem is with the community they tried first and they go on to keep trying out communities. If they go into the new community with the same expectations, they are going to leave with the same disappointment. Eventually, one of two things usually happens. Most often, eventually they realize that there are no communities that are as wonderful as they want them to be, and they give up–and sometimes begin denouncing all the communes as ‘frauds’. But sometimes, someone realizes that there just aren’t any perfect communities, and that they can live with that, and they find one to call their home because it fits within some reasonable expectation.
I intend to write a piece soon on what I will call The Shadow Side of Community and look at all the stuff no one wants to talk about that exists in communities. Basically, as I said, communities have almost all the ills that the larger society has (and most people don’t want to talk about these things in the larger society either). So, why join a commune if it’s going to have the same problems as the mainstream? One reason is that the communes often aim higher and at least want to be better than they are. And, I think that they really are better than the mainstream in many ways. People share more and work together and think and talk about all these issues in ways that you won’t find in your average setting. I think that communes and communities offer quite a bit (that’s why I have lived in them all these years). You can actually get a lot out of communal living. You just need to lower your expectations.
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Thanks!
Serenity: Potluck and Crew
by Raven Glomus
The Serenity Community for Justice and Peace is one of the newest, most ambitious, and, I think, most exciting of the Louisa communities. (I’ve written about them in terms of the Louisa Community Cluster and Paxus has written about them as being “the Right Allies”.)
Last week, I posted on Facebook pictures from a potluck they had last summer (which I got from their Facebook page).
As you can see, it reached 174 people. More importantly, fourteen people liked or loved it and it had 65 engagements. I’m happy with this because I would like them to be better known. As I said in my summary of them on the Louisa Community Cluster post, I am hoping to become more involved with them. I think that they are a very important resource in the communities movement. Here’s the rest of the pictures from the potluck:
Today, on Facebook, I am posting another Serenity picture from their Facebook page, with the caption: “Here’s part of the team creating the Serenity Community for Justice and Peace. I love Paxus’ comment–I think they truly are heroes.”
Here’s the picture of them:
And the comment Paxus made:
Glomus through the seasons
Theresa has been documenting the land around Glomus Commune for the last few years from the same vantage point across the stream. Here she makes it all into a lovely meditation about her home.
Toasters and Sheets
by Paxus Calta
from Your Passport to Complaining
I had a long time crush on Kat Kinkade. Our time at Twin Oaks overlapped for the first couple years of my membership and we were involved in several projects together and generally appreciated each other. In a configuration that would be impossible today, Kat, Keenan, Pam, and i were in a group which meet weekly that i called “the shadow planners” (Twin Oaks highest executive office is the plannership and all 4 of us had served as planners, though i had not been selected when this group started). We talked about the different problems the community faced and what we thought were clever solutions to them.
Kat had been married in her younger life, but had definitely moved on from romance being a focus; she was doing other things and happy with them. So i was not surprised at her hesitancy around my proposal.
“We should get married.” I proposed one day while visiting her.
“Why on earth would we do that?” Kat asked, more curious than surprised.
“Because we could throw a large party …”
“And we both know a lot of people who care for us and the commune …”
“…yes…” Kat was waiting
“And we could ask them all to give us only sheets and toasters.” I concluded.
Kat cracked up laughing and never seriously responded to my offer. We had spoken several times about the ephemeral nature of both sheets and toasters in the commune context. These are two of the things the commune burns through at a pretty stunning rate. We are hard on toasters and they don’t last long in our busy kitchens. And apparently we have some combination of sheet flight/hoarding or rough sleepers because we are regularly in need of sheets.
Kat cofounded Twin Oaks, East Wind and Acorn communities. She also wrote the books Walden Two Experiment and Is it Utopia, yet?
Kat was interviewed by Tamara Jones of the Washington Post Magazine in 1999.
What does equality mean to you?
by Raven Glomus
I was trying to think of a Facebook question and I realized, in spite of constantly talking about egalitarian communities, I hadn’t asked what other folks definitions of equality (or egalitarian or equity) was. So I posted this:
After I posted it, I realized that I had reposted a piece from the blog here on Facebook, just a little over a week before, where I directly asked the question, What’s Egalitarian?
Still, I was interested in what other folks thought the words meant. (Also, this is Facebook–people seldom remember what you posted the week before.) It did get a good reach–as you can see, 225 people saw it. Unfortunately, there were only three comments, and one of them was from me. Here’s the comments:
Please feel free to comment if you read this. I really am interested in knowing what different people mean by equality. (And I was surprised that no one got into the ‘equality vs equity’ debate.)
Jules on Getting into Twin Oaks
This is Jules who has been involved with Commune Life for a while and lives at Twin Oaks. They have a TikTok channel and here they explain how you can join Twin Oaks.
commune life 