Community

          What kind of community are we living in at Solheimar? Is it a kind of community that would function in another setting? As a village, Solheimar is very isolated. To what extent is isolation necessary for a community to function? Or is it actually necessary?

These are some questions that have been floating through our minds as we are spending more time here. Our CELL group resides in Brekkukot, a guesthouse built for fifteen people. Although our accommodations go beyond our expectations, finding a way to accommodate everyone’s needs around the clock is pretty challenging; this includes mealtime, classtime, and most of our free time. In a discussion led in class about community, the value of individual freedom within a community was mentioned several times. We have found that the importance of taking care of individual needs supports personal and mental health which ultimately leads to the enhancement of community living. Having independence can help reduce tension in relationships that may be brought on by frequent interaction. It can also strengthen the dynamic of the group as a whole.

In his article “The Common Life”, Scott Russell Sanders says that “a community can support a number of people who are just passing through, or who care about no one’s needs but their own; the greater the proportion of such people however, the more vulnerable the community, until eventually it breaks down.” I agree that a large proportion of these types of people can affect a community’s vulnerability, but those people don’t exist in the CELL community. There is a difference between caring about no one’s needs but your own and wanting independence. I think people in this community value the latter over the former. Sanders brings up another interesting point about his ideal community. He says it arises “not from duty or money but from the free interchange of people who share a place, share work and food, sorrows and hope… dwelling in a web of relationships, the many threads tugging at you while also holding you upright.” It’s interesting because as an academic program abroad, this CELL community was kind of formed from money and duty because we paid tuition to come to Solheimar and we have a duty as students to participate in the community to receive academic credit. On the other hand, each of us made a choice to be in this program and we were each carefully selected to be a part of the community. It seems that our desire to be here and the fact that we care about our planet and sustainability, that we are all compassionate people, and that we chose to live in an intentional community takes precedence over money and duty.

It has been essential to our growth, having the romanticized view of Solheimar wear off just a little bit. Although this place still swells with some sort of European magic, we are being reminded every day that we’re still living our lives just like any other time. The key here is maintaining a balance. We’re weaving in and out of a system, as we all try to integrate our own needs, the CELL community needs, and the Solheimar community needs intentionally into one purpose. We are building community through consensus decision making, upholding our agreement that embodies communal living, and simply trying to nail a concise and sustainable food order. In the meantime, we are still striving to truly understand the role of each person living at Solheimar. It’s been an exciting adventure so far, knowing that we’re all striving for something: whether that be sustainability, peace, communal harmony or answers to other questions that are unfolding day by day.

                                                      - Rachael Harmel and Shelby Thoma