Posted in Blog, Events Calendar on May 9th, 2011
As people double up, i.e., move in with others to cut housing expenses, living in close proximity to others can be stressful and difficult. It could be a joyful chapter in your life rather than a spell in hell, however. Developing communication skills and conscious awareness are valuable tools that make a big difference. Laird [...]
I’ve looked and looked. Maybe it’s out there and I just haven’t seen it. Where is the short term housing that we desperately need? The safe, affordable, possibly short term, housing that gives people a breather. The number of people standing at the precipice of homelessness, and falling into it, numbs my mind! A lot [...]
Posted in Blog on Apr 22nd, 2010
A group of people walk the talk by combining their activist ideals with conscious living in intentional communities. The Chicago Network of Intentional Communities (NIC) gathered for a delicious potluck recently and to discuss the process to become a community member. Having considerable experience, the panel shared their wisdom on how they evaluate prospective housemates. [...]
Posted in Blog on Mar 7th, 2010
Our 32-year allergy to taxes has brought us to this: in 2007, before the economic collapse 37.3 million people lived in poverty, 12.5 percent of our population. If societies are judged by their treatment of the most vulnerable – children, women, the elderly, the mentally or physically disabled – perhaps we’re not that civilized after [...]
Posted in Blog on Mar 4th, 2010
Thirty years of fiddling, and ain’t-it-awfuling, hasn’t made a dent in the tragedy of our children being cheated out of an adequate education. No child left behind’s focus on test scores has left learning behind. When the dismal scores pile up, we typically go after the teachers and the schools, the obvious culprits, right? Central [...]
Posted in Blog on Jan 27th, 2010
In this grim economy, I cling to glimmers of generosity and optimism like a life raft. This week, two examples of confident children being themselves gave me hope. At church last Sunday, when a three-year old bumped her head, a fifth-grader jumped up, picked up the crying girl and comforted her. It looked as though [...]
Posted in Blog on Jan 27th, 2010
As the economy collapses before our eyes, incidents of people coming unglued are becoming more commonplace. Two men, not completely in their right minds on CTA buses last week, illustrate how some people are becoming unraveled. The first guy argued with the driver over his fare. When I realized that twenty cents was the difference [...]
Two shared housing co-ops both used the word “joy” to describe their households. That should tell you something.
Posted in Blog on Jan 10th, 2010
Wall Street’s bonus season, with speculation that some compensation could be in the eight-figure range, exhibits a stupefying level of cluelessness from a supposedly bright segment of the population. Bright but out of touch. Four million mortgages are either in foreclosure or more than 90 days behind in their payments. The bailed out banks repaid [...]
An odd twist of circumstances led me to live for two months in a bungalow where I shared a kitchen with two other housing units. A Punjabi Indian couple, completing their residencies at local hospitals, lived on the first floor with their beautiful eight-month-old daughter. An engineer lived in the basement apartment, a refugee from [...]