Gaiasana Multigenerational Sustainable Community

Although a multigenerational community benefits all ages from new born to over 100 years old, we intend it to be of special benefit to elders by making them of special benefit to their community.

We have all seen the traditional old folks' home, with a row of rocking chairs on the front porch with unhappy elders supposedly waiting for lunch but really waiting to die. These valuable people are being wasted, their experience and knowledge fading away. They have a desire to be useful but are trapped in a system designed to discard them. Although it is not intended that way they are being treated in a cruel and horrible fashion. Under these conditions the rocking chair becomes a slow method of execution.

Gaiasana will have a number of hobby/work shops, in wood-working, ceramics, weaving & needle work, metal work, cutting and polishing semiprecious stones, herb & vegetable growing, aquaculture, production of ornamental & agricultural plants & seeds.

By working in these, elders will produce things of value and be useful to the community. Naturally elders' physical limitations will be recognized and they only may work as little as an hour a day. For our elders these will be seen as hobby shops as each will choose the shops they wish to participate in and many will become instructors as the shops will be open to paying clients from outside the community.

This work shop aspect of Gaiasana will be operated as a coop. This coop will be free of any religious dogma since that tends to divide groups. It will also be free of dietary rules. Everyone can use alcohol or meat if they wish. Elders may decide not to work in this system but to pay their upkeep in cash. This is perfectly alright. They will receive a complete explaination of their rights and be issued a rocking chair.

The person writing this had a grandmother who died in an old folks' home at the age of 100 years and 9 days. She was in close to a vegetative state not recognising anyone nor being able to comunicate. It is not known if this state was a result of how she had to live in that home or not, but it is suspected that such contributed to her condition.

It is hoped that the reader will imagine himself unable to avoid in the future being seated in that hateful row of rocking chairs to stagnate and realize that being a real member of a community is a far better fate, especially when there is a general collapse of paper money making any payments impossible. A sustainable community will be able to survive even that.