just a little dream

I have been building complex societies and entire worlds in my head since I was a kid. I remember that this is how I spent most of my 8th grade science class as I stared straight ahead and appeared to be paying attention. Perhaps I should have turned some of these ideas into books at some point, but the planning that goes into writing a novel is not my strong suit. In any case, these worlds are usually entirely just that – the world. There are no characters, no conflict, no drama, no story. They’re just the background. Anyway, about a week ago (longer since I’ve been letting this post sit in my drafts for awhile, but after one more once over, I’m going to post), I started thinking about a tiny-house intentional community for (primarily Hellenic) polytheists and how that would work. The ideas haven’t left my head yet, so I thought it might be a good idea to write it down, as much as I can anyway. I’m sure that some parts that were well fleshed out a week ago are no longer available to be written down, but perhaps they will return. I’m also fairly certain that I will entirely forget to write down some of my ideas. Anyway, let me know what you think.

The community would be located on an old RV park or campground that I am somehow able to purchase. The reason for this is that it would already be at least somewhat subdivided into lots with electrical and sewage hook ups. The rest of the land could be divided into public paths, undisturbed forest, and lots that would be used for tiny homes, temples, and community services.

Governance: There would be a council of seven elected members of the community that would serve for one year, but re-election is possible for an unlimited number of terms. This number could be increased up to thirteen if needed but should always be an odd number. This council would be responsible for things like determining rents, approving community service projects, appointing heads of sub-committees (committees could be created for any task/purpose at the discretion of the council), deciding on expulsion/restorative justice situations, and anything else that comes up.

Election would be something like all members of the community that want to be considered for a council position write their name on a list, which is then posted large enough for everyone to see. Those members are then seated spaced out enough for people to gather around them to hear them speak and to ask questions and hear the answers. They’re not debating with each other – each person is asking to be elected on their own merit. Then at an appointed time, everyone in the community above a certain age (16? – the same age as for all other voting in the community – I would like to include teenagers who are not yet able to legally vote as sometimes they have really interesting and valuable ways of looking at the world – the lowest age would probably be 14, but the council could set this age) would submit a ballot indicating who they want to be on the council. The seven people with the most votes (to be tallied by the previous council) become the new council. This would all happen on the same day, so there is no campaigning.

Temples: I would like the first temple to be for Apollon, but whether it is for him generally, for him under a particular epithet, or for him in conjunction with other gods (Apollon, Artemis, and Leto or Apollon, Hermes, and Dionyosos, or Apollon, Athena, and Zeus, or Apollon, Aesclepios, and Hygeia, or…you get the idea) would be determined by vote at a public meeting. Once this temple is completed, proposals for the next temple would be made and voted on at the next public meeting. It would not necessarily have to be a Hellenic god, but hopefully the majority would be. A priest for each temple would be chosen by lot (divination) out of the names of people who put themselves forward for the role. That person is then the head priest for a set duration of time (six months, nine months, or one year – determined by the council, but uniform for all temples). All of the other people who put themselves forward for the role would still be able to serve as priests but under the direction of the head priest for their temple. People can serve in more than one temple as long as they have the time to do so. Priests are responsible for planning and executing festivals (how many depends on the god they serve and what they as head priest feel is appropriate), care of the temple and its shrine (they will be able to request that certain tasks be completed by community members doing their obligatory service – requests go to the council and are approved or denied based on available service hours and their ranking of community needs), and any services that they think their temple should offer to the community. Priests can serve consecutive terms in perpetuity if they keep putting their name in for the position and keep getting chosen by lot.

Public Meetings: To be held monthly or every three months (as determined by the council). Presence is voluntary, but all community members above the age of 16 (or whatever the community voting age is set as) who are present get a vote in all matters presented to the public. Younger community members are welcome to observe and ask questions as long as they are old enough to behave appropriately.

Rent & “Taxes:” Rents would ideally be 3x the cost of the mortgage divided by the number of households. Any community member who wishes to have a business or workshop on the premises would obtain a second lot for that and count as two households for rent purposes but not “tax” purposes. As we may gain or lose tenants over the course of a year, the math would be off at some point and would need to be reevaluated by the council on a yearly basis. 1/3 of those rents would be payable to me to cover the mortgage, 1/3 would go into the temple fund, which would be distributed evenly among existing temples for festival and other expenses and to the next temple to be built for construction expenses. The final third would go to the council to pay for things like electricity, new community service buildings, and any other emergency maintenance of the community as a whole that comes up. This fund should build up a savings for emergencies before spending on new buildings or renovation. People are welcome to make donations to particular temple funds or to the community as a whole, but this would never be expected or requested.

There would also a “service tax” – This is mandated service hours for every community member of the age to vote and above. It would likely be 1-3 hours per week (determined by the council), and it would be assigned. Each person would have a questionnaire to fill out that they can update as often as they like that the council would use to assign tasks. This would include things like special skills, disability information that affects service (like if a person can’t lift heavy objects, can’t walk very far, has trouble reading, etc), service preferences, and service tasks that they would really like not to have to do. Preferences aren’t guaranteed to be accommodated (scrub the floors in a temple, for example, someone still has to do it). People who work particularly busy jobs and have excess funds but not excess time could pay for service hours not worked. The amount would be determined by the council and be split evenly between the temple fund and the community fund. Children below voting age would be welcome to volunteer service with their parents’ permission, and they would be interviewed by the council to determine placement, but they would have a choice in what they do. Any community member who wants to volunteer additional hours would also have a choice in what they do.

Gatekeeping: You don’t have to be a polytheist (or a Hellenic polytheist) to join the community, but you do have to understand that your money and your service will partly go toward supporting temples. If you’re fine with that then we’re fine with you.

Community Services: I would like to have a general store where we sell all items at cost, so there is no profit earned. Residents can request items to be stocked, and basic operations (stocking, cashiering, and janitorial) would be completed by residents as service hours. The administration and more complex tasks (ordering, etc) would be done by someone appointed by the council for their relevant skillset. Depending on the time required, it could count as their service hours or be a paid position. Full-time paid positions in the community would all receive the same salary that would be determined by the council. It would be enough to cover their rent, the average amount needed for groceries, clothing, wifi, and some discretionary luxury items, but it probably wouldn’t be competitive with anything outside the community. Residents must bring their own reusable bags, boxes, or baskets for shopping.

I would like to have a clinic in the community staffed by a medical professional – it might be a paramedic or EMT or it might be a nurse or doctor, it really depends on who we have in our community. Clinic hours could be service hours or someone’s full-time position receiving a full-time community position salary.

I would like to have a community garden where we grow as much food as possible that can be distributed to residents free of charge with any excess being preserved and made available or donated to local food banks or community pantries. Most community garden work would be done by volunteers who just enjoy gardening tasks and as service hours. It would be one person’s appointed position (because they have the skills for the position) to do all of the planning and organization of what we can plant, where it needs to be planted, when it can be harvested, and any care the plants require. They would be responsible for teaching volunteers and people doing their service hours how to do the required tasks properly. This could count as someone’s service hours or be a paid position, depending on the time required.

I would like a private app to be created for the community where various councils can make announcements, residents can make requests to the appropriate bodies, service hour assignments can be sent out, etc. Creation of such would be someone or several someone’s service hours until the project is completed. After which, they could be scheduled periodically for maintenance and updates.

Food Animals – Sorry, this is not a vegetarian or vegan community, though individuals certainly could be. I would like to have some food animals to support the community similar to the community garden if we have the space to do so free-range. Chickens and ducks for eggs, cows (please!), goats, and sheep for milk and cheese (and wool), and then after some years and if we have appropriately skilled residents willing to take on the related tasks, for meat and sacrifice as well. Other animals could be added as the opportunity arises and we have people who know how to care for them well and process them humanely.

Saturday Market: It doesn’t actually need to be on Saturdays, but I would like a weekly market with stalls that residents can use to “sell” handmade items and offer services. The community garden would have a stall where people can pick up any leftover items before the remainder are canned (or donated to a food bank if they can’t be preserved – canned items would be listed with new harvests until they’re gone). While cash exchange would not be prohibited, I would like to see predominantly barter. Perhaps someone exchanges devotional jewelry for hand spun yarn or knitted items, or someone else offers babysitting in exchange for art classes or someone offers to cook and deliver a set number of meals to someone in exchange for a set of their hand carved wooden bowls. This would explicitly not be a flea market, but handmade goods and advertisement of services that community members are able to provide (could be anything from tutoring, to art and music lessons, to doing taxes (though that really ought to be a community service paid for by the council), to cooking and delivering meals, to whatever people come up with).

Additional Services: Anyone can propose a new service, whether it has a structure associated with it or not. All proposals would be made to the council, and if accepted they would have service hours assigned to them (and potentially a paid position as well) as determined by the council.

Elder and Illness Services: It would be a service duty to check in with any elderly and alone residents as well as anyone who is sick. The person doing the service would hang out with them for a bit if they want and find out what they need, if anything. They would put in requests to the relevant services and inform the council of any needs not being met so that the council can determine how the community can meet those needs and create new services accordingly.

Inspector: As imposing as this title sounds, what I mean is that it would periodically be someone’s service hours to walk the entire property and note anything in disrepair or in need of cleaning that had previously been overlooked as well as to talk to residents and report any unmet needs to the council.

Community Garden Crop Distribution: The Community Garden would keep a spreadsheet of all residents and all crops. When new crops have been harvested and are ready to be distributed, they would announce what is available, and residents would have a set amount of time to make their reasonable requests (meant for household or temple consumption only). The worker at the garden would then go through the spreadsheet and assign items based on who hasn’t had them before. So, for example, imagine these things are all harvested at the same time, and I request: 3 onions, 2 bunches of scallions, 1 oz. of bay leaves, 2 lbs. of tomatoes, and 1 lb. of peas. If I am at the top of the list and have never gotten any of these items before, I will get everything I asked for. If I have gotten tomatoes before but nothing else, I will get everything else set aside for me, but tomatoes will first go to the next person who requested them who hasn’t gotten them before and so on. If there are tomatoes remaining by the time they get back to my name, then i’ll get as close to the 2 lbs. I requested as are left. If I’m lower on the list, it’s the same procedure, I get as much of what I asked for as is left that I haven’t gotten before, and I’ll get those items if there’s enough to come back around to me again. They’ll keep track of how many times I’ve received each item, and people who have received them fewer times will always be higher up on the priority list. If this can be automated in our app, so much the better. My items can then be held for me to pick up or delivered by people doing their service hours.

Head priests can make requests for the temples and for themselves personally. Requests for temples should always be fulfilled first (so, head priests must keep an eye out for new crops and request “first fruits” if that’s something that they ought to offer to the god they serve), but priests have no priority in their personal requests.

Facilities: I would like an outdoor kitchen that can be used by anyone but priority would be given to anyone needing to prepare meals as service for community elders and anyone who is too sick to prepare meals for themselves. This kitchen could also be used for festival preparations.

I’d like outdoor shower facilities with attached changing rooms (walls that go nearly to the floor and a roof that is a few feet above the top of the wall (which is high enough to be above everyone’s head) – for use by anyone who just wants to shower where they can see tree tops while they do so and anyone whose home is too small to have a shower inside (like anyone who chose a built out van instead of a more traditional tiny house) or whose shower is broken. I’d also like restroom facilities with bidets (more sustainable than toilet paper for both financial and sewage system reasons), but hand soap would be supplied by the community. It would be a service job to clean the bathrooms and showers, though of course people should not leave either a mess. It would also be a service job to periodically deep clean the outdoor kitchen, but anyone who uses it should clean it after use. Unless someone requests this service duty, it would not be piled on the same group of people repeatedly. The only people exempt would be people with such in demand skills that their service hours can’t be spared. A large building for public meetings and other functions should be built at some point, thought they could also be held outdoors.

In Perpetuity: I would obviously only receive money to pay the mortgage until the mortgage is paid off. Once the mortgage is paid off, we would work on paying back any down payment I had made and anything I had paid when we didn’t have enough tenants to cover the mortgage. Once that is complete, the property would be donated somehow or kept in trust for the community itself. Rents could either stay the same or be lowered (determined by the council) and would then be split between the temple fund and the community fund. The community fund would continue to pay for property taxes, electricity (if we’re not off the grid yet), sewage, soap for the public restrooms, maintenance needs, new service or public use buildings, upkeep of services like seeds for the community garden and consumables for the clinic, etc.

Tiny Homes? Anyone who doesn’t want to live in a tiny home and has the funds to do so could buy property nearby (ideally adjoining the community) and be part of the community by paying their “tax” (service hours) as well as a set fee (determined by the council – perhaps determined as a percentage of income rather than being the same for everyone) to be donated to both the community fund and the temple fund. If a full size house becomes available on an adjoining property at any point and the community can afford it, we could expand and have a monastic residence and other things such as the community and council decide. Our tiny homes don’t necessarily need to be the size commonly made for towing, but if you build directly on the property and then decide to leave, you won’t really have any way to take your home with you. We would be glad to accept your donation.