By Tom Braford
An architect friend recently said that in school he learned that form follows function. But, more often than not, it looks like form follows finance.
This got me thinking, if that is the case, and there does seem to be some evidence for that, then the reverse should also be true and finance follows form. Maybe altering the form of finance should make it possible to create more functional forms of everything from buildings to education, food production, transportation and so on?
What if our economic system is evolving, what if we are playing a role in that and what if, with the unfolding of the Ecozoic Age, we are becoming conscious of that role and therefore have the privilege of choosing how life unfolds?
These are some of the thoughts that came to mind as we read from the website of the Rockhaven Ecozoic Center, which reflects many teachings of Thomas Berry, who coined the term Ecozoic. Here’s a sample:
“[O]ur human economy is derivative from the Earth economy. To glory in a rising Gross Domestic Product with an irreversibly declining Earth Product is an economic absurdity.”
– Thomas Berry
So, I thought, how perfect. We already have everything we need, including things that might not lend themselves to the profit motive, but that do contribute to the evolutionary progress motive that our friends at Rockhaven operate from.
Maybe the time has come to pull ourselves up by our evolutionary bootstraps and start putting our time, talent and money where our intentions for community are.
Cohousing and ecovillage communities have been getting built in the US for decades now by prospective community members who join with allied nonprofits and for-profit real estate developers to get them built.
They have learned that the more engaged buyer groups are with investments of time, talent and economic resources, the more smoothly the process goes.
In St. Louis, with the recent workshops with Sim Van der Ryn and Eden Clearbrook, we have reinvigorated our core group, so we are looking for several good people willing to join us.
Curious? If so, contact us:
braford@sbcglobal.net
www.ArizmendiEcovillage.com.