Not for everyone, but all are welcome at The Local Village.

Critical Thinking?

I get a bit,..okay,..A LOT of criticism for this "Village Idea". 
And, rightfully so,..for a Million different reasons,..and a Trillion items I may not have thought of yet,..or at the very least, not had the opportunity to detail.;)
Somehow,..this makes me think that I must be going the right way...or no-one would follow what I am saying at ALL!

What might a Village offer the Outside World?

With this said,.. I would like to speak today a bit about what Village Life might offer,..daily, on Week-ends, during Festivals, Harvesting Times, Seasonal Conferences,..etc..
What I am getting at is an extra option to the ones we currently are offered on this Planet...i.e..(Town, City, Metropolis, Megalopolis,..etc..for meeting, doing, being, learning, growing,sharing..)
A simple place to be if you want to be. Or an easygoing place to visit when you'd like to. A publicly accessible Social Location,..just smaller than a town,..and bigger than an encampment. ;)
Complete with a Mercantile, Clinic, School, Post-Office, Cafe, Library,Recording Studios, Art Museum, Museum of Local History, Amphitheater, etc,..(except for on a smaller scale,..to more efficiently serve both the People that inhabit the space,..and the space itself.)
And,...though I DO believe that the current cities in decay will eventually fail due to structural short-sights and simple-shelf-life-tendencies..I also realize that may not happen even in my lifetime.
I am convinced, regardless, that in order to bridge the gap between living as we are now(un-sustainably)into living in harmony with the Earth ,..these Local Villages must be created!  Afterward, they can and will prove to play a vital role in furnishing larger Communities with many of their needs without these Communities having to use fossil-fuels to obtain their items from a-far.
( Reducing what we import,..even from the next state over,..maintains a semi-closed financial-loop and also a chance to re-enliven and re-introduce local, organic, heirloom, boutique, and small, family-farming!)
At a Local Village,..these independent providers of Foods and Home-made and Hand-produces products would find an outlet and way to sell and share their wares, talents, and crops. 

Yurts(my structure of choice), could be rented or checked out for Workshops, Performances, Special Sales and Art Events,..amongst other things...like Vacationing in for a Weekend or maybe a Fortnight!:)
No,..everyone doesn't HAVE to live in a Village.And no,..every Village doesn't HAVE to be made of Yurts!ha! But if we build a bunch of them..that ARE,..it will be both economical, and sensible. And I am betting many will be VERY glad we have done so,when we DO!( Thankful even.)

A Local Village: To visit, make use of, and just to know of ,to offer up as an answer for others that could benefit from it's offerings and simplicity of life. 
Not for everyone,..but everyone is Welcome! :)

Smaller, closer, manageable: Village Logic 101 ;)

:Backward to go forward, but this time we're bringing the Future with us!

It is often a struggle to keep daily life managed in "Modern Times". What,.. with all of the items of concern upon our personal plates,..not to mention(and maybe we'd all be a bit smilier if I didn't)..the Community plate,..Planet-plate and any and every other thing that you put yourself into, or maybe onto. ;)

Some days it sure does SEEM like my plate is full,..but my LIFE is empty. There is so much going on that I am unable to keep up with, that inevitably,..things, and even people, begin to represent "just another thing" that I've got to "manage" on my plates!(Picture here: roller-skating Tom Robbins-esque Genius-Waitress with the delicate and overwhelmed/abundant pantheon of to-do, to-be, and to-have-plates,.. holding onto what is dear in her Shiva-like arms of many,..in umpteen places at once,..serving the every..though less than aptly, by circumstantial force.)

I don't even WANT all of these plates!Can't I just roller-skate?;p
Wasn't LIFE once simpler?.. and mightn't it have been more fulfilling in ways that we have forgotten or imagine to have risen above? Can't it be again?

(Yeah,...that's rhetorical. We all know it CAN be.)

I believe it is time to  NOW help it be consistently that way!

It's not quite as simple as going back to hunter/gatherer wandering tribes,and beating drums around a fire(though a good Bonfire is well known to enliven and nurture the Souls of any group.)..but, it's also not as complicated as de-coding a genome with nothing but crayons and Lincoln-logs! (Rudimentary,..but also do-able I'm betting.) Re-Envisioning a well-functioning, co-operative daily life, where our intents are expressed honestly, in transparency is needed. To gain that Vision, like crossing life's busy freeway,..we look both ways before attempting. To the past,..and also simultaneously to Future.

With the preserved history we have of Humanity, I am lead to believe that well intentioned peoples of the past survived, nay, THRIVED in well designed small societies for enormous, un-recorded swaths of time. Makes me think of the idea, "no news is good news"..
Maybe we don't hear a heck of a lot about the tiny Villages throughout time that sustained and extended the race, propelling Humanity forward, peacefully into the Future that is Now... I know for a fact though, that we all wouldn't BE here without them.

And I am left wondering at times, if some of the greatest Civilizations of recorded History,..didn't ultimately FAIL due to their unsustainable sizes and intents.No, Rome wasn't built in a day,..but for all it was,..where and what is it NOW? The Planet is frankly littered with empty, unscrupulously abandoned feats of  design; but are they no more than representations of over-active appreciation of Ego and Largess? Will our Cities of today be no more than Stonehenges of tomorrow?

No,..Stonehenge was made of stuff that lasts.;) 

But TRULY ,..need we judge ourselves as a race by the Grande size of our constructions?..OR, RATHER by the Grande designs of our ability to accomplish mutually beneficial Dreams, TOGETHER as a PEOPLE?

  I see Villages as both, more easily attainable and sustainable Dream-Factories for their inhabitants. ..Dreams of engaging with Life at It's OWN pace,..leaving your plates and maybe skates behind,..and running barefoot into NOW'S possibilities...into who and what we we ACTUALLY are.( Amazing insightful creatures with the ability to create a better Reality!)

Yes!!..We  CAN and WILL redesign the items and ideas that surround us and affect us to serve our goals in a lasting and peaceful image of our unified Dream of Happiness. But,..NOW, we also have at our disposal the technologies of TODAY to more easily support the ideas and theories of YESTERDAY that worked. And creatively we can work into and approach a perfect fusion of Time to reach a better Now WITH. Woven of  the understandings we presently possess in regards to what is healthiest for our Planet AND selves, (i.e.. Agricultural and Resource-gathering practices and distribution,), it should be quite evident that to properly feed and KEEP feeding and caring for a people,..the FOODS and Products need to be grown and/or sourced locally, and cleanly. The bigger the Society,..the bigger the divot it leaves behind.

In a World where communities feed and sustain themselves locally,..PEACE is inevitable.

(more soon..:) )...comments as always appreciated.
:)'s..Kat Sol.

Yurt Price Info from Internet featuring: Pacific Yurts

Pacific Yurts Price List quote-index(subject to change)

City or Village? ...Modern-day Castle or Yurt?

The Modern Metropolis
Sooner or later, when something isn't working one admits(if ADMITTING to someone more than oneself is even NECESSARY)..that,..well,..somethings GOT to change!
This holds also true to our modern-day(but aging) cities.
At some point,..the fundamental structures and engineering feats of our modern-day cities and metropolis will age into a state of un-manage-able decay.
These pipes and wires and cables?..ALL subject to decay. AND all placed in such an "attractive" way (underground)..so as to be rather hard to get BACK at to FIX!Think.."street-up-grade-project"...weeks?months?years?Probably some of each.
But, in essence,..an un-sustainable system,..that will eventually need to be vacated, I believe.Something who's rate of decay is out-running it's people's rate of problem-solving-abilities. (Too intricate and mechanically-complex to be properly addressed for re-structuring or diligent repair as really needed.)
In centuries passed, a Village and/or other smaller community structure served the needs of It's people rather well, it would seem.Yes, there have always been hard times,..bad crops,droughts, floods, wars,..but, I ask you this,..when ANY sort of natural(or other) disaster strikes,..which is easier to care for afterward,.. (PROPERLY, that is)..150 people's needs..OR 150,000 people's needs? 

If the proverbial muck hit the fan,..I'd rather have a smaller, closer-knit group of people to care for, and to care for me. Cohesion of a people in a crisis is ALWAYS crucial to survival and management. This is easier to accomplish in smaller numbers, simply put.
  
The Modern Castle.
Sustainability of structures to maintain daily functioning-life-needs is a real KEY ingredient when it comes to the needs of ANY community. If a tornado comes by...which would you rather re-build? A yurt..or a modern-day castle? (Albeit,..there is an imperative need for planned ways of physical escape from devastation of any kind,..floating refuge,..sub-terrainian refuge,..etc..because we ALL know that homes can be re-built,..but life cannot, once lost.)

I think people are mistaken though, when they think they are protected by their modern day homes. If re-analyzed, I think many might just see today's sprawling-home-steads as  the natural-disaster-traps they ARE! A home is safest, to ME,..when it is easily opened and cleaned, and also easily EXIT-able! 
Yurts are perfect! They are inexpensive,(less than $10,000 ea.)..easily produced in a sustainable manner,..take up less resources, both in the short AND long run..i.e..less expensive up-grades and repairs in the long run,..and less EVERYTHING to make! They can be fitted with solar-energy collecting panels,..and are quite attractive, cozy and well-suited to  housing wood-stoves ! And in the event of loss,..there would be SO much less to replace or rebuild!
This isn't Armageddon-speak, people,..this is,..let's-re-build-and-re-fashion-the-face-of-our-societies-in-form-and function-before-we-miss-the-mark! What are YOUR thoughts? Feed-back MUCH appreciated and thankfully received!

OPERATION EGYPT - ANONYMOUS PRESS RELEASE - 26/01/2011