Sustainable Living and Community

Once upon a time there was a village. There were cottages and homes surrounding the vibrant life of community. People came and went connecting to neighbors sharing a wave, smile and gossip. Families for several generations stayed in the same large home and neighbors searching for friends gathered on front porches for coffee or tea and lively fun. Backyards were gathering spots for everyone to join in for barbecues around the neighborhood.

Then one day the auto was invented and grew in influence. Soon cars were carrying people further out of the city to homes further apart and homes grew larger in size. So, people drive for thirty minutes enter a subdivision with windows rolled up never waving to a neighbor. They drive into the garage and the garage door goes down. To go outside they step out the back door to a fenced in backyard.

They stay in large homes because the larger the home the longer you stay in it. The smaller the home the more you go outside to meet your neighbor. Modern housing is designed for isolation.

And here's the kicker, research now shows the loss of neighborly connection can be measured in ill health and dysfunctional lifestyles and is a contributing factor for increased disease and the break down of culture.

To live a vibrant, healthy life it takes a village. It takes homes designed for connection, clustered around courtyards, envisioned with community in mind. It takes an intention and commitment.

The need in Nashville is great for homes that offer built in social connections for sustainable living.

“For fifty years, our economic mission in America, at its core, has been to build bigger houses farther apart from each other. And boy have we succeeded; a nation of starter castles for entry-level monarchs, built at such removed one from the next that the car is unavoidable.”

“And it's no wonder we're not so happy, either. Because the ecological effect of that sprawl is dwarfed only by its psychological effect, by the fact that we've allowed ourselves to become the first members of our species to have no practical need of our neighbors for much of anything. Americans say that they are not as happy, on average, as they were fifty years ago, despite a trebling of “living standards” And the reason they give is loss of community, loss of connection. This is not sentimentality; the average American eats meals with friends, family, neighbors, half as often as fifty years ago. The average American has half as many close friends.”