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Saturday, February 25, 2012

Wanderlust

My lovely wife and I went to the movies to see “Wanderlust.” The premise is of a New York urban couple losing their income and home. They end up having a series of adventures at a commune named Elysium.

The movie is R rated and not everyone’s cup of tea. However, my wife and I were intrigued by the trailer and had to see it. After all, we do live like a bunch of hippies sometimes, in a dome out in the woods. Over the years, we’ve lived under one roof with friends and/or family. We are familiar with the whole communal living thing.

When anyone thinks “commune” they think “free love.” While some communes experimented with it, not every community did. Some that did gave it up. In the long run, it tends to pull communities apart rather than pull them together. Jealously is a hard thing to ignore. Successful groups know this and don’t mess around with sexual games that complicate a difficult enough living arrangement.

As times get tougher, more people will be sharing a roof. Sometimes it’s the only way to survive. It can be a lot of fun: sharing meals, chores, music, and socializing. It can be challenging. There has to be a few ground rules and open paths of communication.

I’ve a friend of mine living on an old farm. There’s his wife, a couple of his kids and their spouses, plus some of their friends. Income is limited, but with everyone pulling together, nobody misses any meals.

Communal living: not just for hippies anymore.

-Sixbears

6 comments:

  1. I see more and more families living together in the same house as a sad trend of the times, a trend of many years ago when few adults had incomes high enough to allow home ownership and families had to live together in the same house to survive. I have many friends who have 30 something children living back home for years because they can’t make it on their own. Especially the girls who married poorly and now must support themselves and their children. Most of these situations are born of poor lifestyle choices and a government who is taxing and regulating the life out of all of us.

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  2. I haven't yet gone to see the movie (much was filmed where I live). I think I'll wait until it comes out on DVD. Ends up being cheaper to rent it. Understand there's more cussing than a hippy would ordinarily use. A lot of local folks in it. Don't have room for kids to move in. They'd have to sleep on the porch.

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  3. I'm glad my folks bought 4 acres because the way things are going we'll be living there in a year or so. Unless the truck driving really pays off, then I can postpone it a little while longer...

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  4. Mike: I had a daughter and granddaughter move in after a nasty divorce. Two years later she had her degree and a full time job. She's on her feet again.

    Momlady: It's a rude movie at times. We caught the matinee and saved $5 each.

    Craig; good to have a fall back position. It will give you an address you can use to register that boat.

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  5. Six; Glad to hear her efforts to recover have worked out for her. Sometimes it takes a little help and mountains of personal effort to get back on track.

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  6. I live with housemates; two of them are a non-monogamous married couple, and I'm also non-monogamous myself. Thing is, we all independently of each other have a "no sex with housemates" rule; it just seems like common-sense drama avoidance to me. As you say, there are enough difficulties with this way of living, no need to go adding a whole other dimension in which to complicate things. I guess we're doing the free-loving hippie thing, just not with each other.

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