fatvegan

We had a L'Arche gathering a few months back. I wrote down some things to share with the people there.

• L'Arche needs something radical
  • it has become a solution not a sign
  • people don't participate because of the number of people the organisation can support
• Assistant movement should be symmetrical around the world
  • one country shouldn't have all it's assistance provided by overseas assistants
• Core purpose of the community must be owned by the community (life in the houses)
• Community life must be imaginable
  • without that there is no sign, it just becomes a funny and finite experiment
• At one point L'Arche definitely had something to say to the world, and people listened to that
• L'Arche is one radical idea, facilitated by an enormous and conservative structure and legacy
• What role do leaders have who exclude themselves from the possibility of full involvement in the community?

Probably won't make much sense out of context, but I suppose it's a summary of why I think L'Arche is struggling. I'd like to rightwrite a proper something about my experience there some time.

I've just been thinking about the idea of a food bus. It would be a normal bus in every way except that instead of being full of people it would be full of cheap organic foods that people can browse through and buy. And instead of using usual bus stops it would use parking lots and malls and just nice shady spots by the side of the road. And instead of stopping for one minute at stops it would stop for one hour. And instead of driving with diesel it would drive with vegetable oil.

It wouldn't probably make money. It would have some nice seats for people to sit and chat on. If you spent a day on the bus helping then you would cheaper food. If you gave vegetable oil then you get cheaper food too.

I like food. And communtity. And also buses. So I think it would make me happy.

I don't even believe in the modern business-like notion of "efficiency". It dovetails with totalitarianism, facism. People say, "If it's decentralized it will be inefficient." I think that's fine. Let it be inefficient.

Arundhati Roy

Before I came to my current community, the image I'd always had in my head was of pleasant, peaceful assistants gliding around an immaculate house exuding a very unconfronting sort of spiritual glow. I knew I certainly didn't fit the bill, so I was reluctant to join up. Luckily, the reality wasn't nearly so intimidating. All my human dysfunction and general incompetence actually made me feel right at home. It was wonderful.

One might expect the story to end there, with our houses coasting along happily and marginally. However, yesterday a new kind of assistant arrived at my house. Unlike the rest of us, she seems to represent the miracle assistant that I had thought this community was filled with. Kind and patient. Interesting and interested. Conversational but certainly not dominating. Experienced. Prayerful. And despite all that, so friendly that no one even feels intimidated.

I've just managed to get through our whole stash of extraordinary incident report forms in a couple of days.

The community so far.

Sometimes I wonder if Jem and I are the only true pancake lovers in the community house. I've had pancakes three mornings in a row now. The last two mornings I've had them by myself and the first morning there were only three of us. We talk a lot about what our expectations of community were before we moved in together. In terms of corn and worms I think my expectations have been totally fulfilled. But in terms of pancakes, although we started out well, things have definitely deteriorated since Jem left. I miss Jem.