No money, no meetings

Part of the cultural make up of Acorn is the smoke shack.

note the lighter hanging from magnets int he top middle.

note the lighter hanging from magnets in the top middle of this photo.

While i dont smoke cigarettes, but the social scene and the liberated zone feeling of the place make me a regular visitor.   The conversation is occasionally precious and exciting to me.  We have been talking a lot about new communities recently.  In part because i bring up Chubby Squirrels all the time and because a number of people here want to help new communities get started.

“She had me at ‘no meetings’.” One member is leaving Acorn, because a smaller sexy community in Missouri is offering a culture which is free of meetings.  Members make decision on the fly and informally.  This is great for a group of 4 or 6, but at 28 (Acorns current membership) or heaven forbid 100 people (Twin Oaks is this size), this gets much harder.

Another smoke shacker was saying that they wanted to move away from money, which was one of their principal reasons for moving here.  They will happily do trades for their skills (which include tattooing) or participate in a gift economy.  And while i applaud people who are giving up meat or shopping at Walmart, the people who are moving away from money have a heroic stature in my mind.