http://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog 200 Essays and Interviews to Help You Read and Write Memoirs Fri, 03 Sep 2010 14:38:44 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 2006-2007 jerrywaxler@yahoo.com (Jerry Waxler) jerrywaxler@yahoo.com (Jerry Waxler) Self-help 1440 http://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/podpress/images/LearnMemoirCoverFront-small.jpg http://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog 144 144 Reading and writing memoirs. Record the Stories of Your Life, tips, how-to, memoir book reviews, by Jerry Waxler memoir, writers, self-help, book-reviews, essays Jerry Waxler Jerry Waxler jerrywaxler@yahoo.com no no http://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-commune-civic-engagement/ http://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-commune-civic-engagement/#comments Thu, 18 Jun 2009 11:24:03 +0000 jerrywaxler http://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/?p=524 http://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/memoir-commune-civic-engagement/feed/ 7 8:33 by Jerry Waxler Frank Schaeffer grew up in a commune on the slopes of the Swiss Alps. His preacher parents intertwined traditional Biblical Christianity with passion ... by Jerry Waxler Frank Schaeffer grew up in a commune on the slopes of the Swiss Alps. His preacher parents intertwined traditional Biblical Christianity with passion for sculpture, music, and painting. The idea that God presents Himself through Beauty attracted leaders and youths from all over the world, eager to learn, to drink in the beauty of the setting, and to be together with each other. The commune described by Schaeffer in his memoir "Crazy for God" became a hotbed of intellectual buzz, where people gathered to invent a Christian philosophy and lifestyle that would offer a hip alternative to secular humanism. I can picture them huddled around the fireplace, staying up late into the night to make sense of life. The name of the place was "L'Abri," French for "The Shelter." It sounds like a seeker's paradise. Reading memoirs is like sitting in an eye exam. Each book lets me try on a different lens through which, more often than not, my own life comes into sharper focus. The improved vision lasts long after the book is closed. In another essay, I wrote about the lessons I learned from Frank Schaeffer's adult life, but his description of L'Abri kept nagging at me, because I too lived in a commune. My lodging, not as picturesque as Schaeffer's, was situated in the woods in Pennsylvania, and though our thinking was based on an Eastern philosophical foundation, our goals were remarkably alike. We were there to develop a thought system that would help us understand ourselves and our place in the world, and like the Schaeffer's we were trying to link together the best of ancient wisdom with the power and excitement of modernity. In each other's company, while we sought Truth, we also found friendship. And living together saved money, reducing the pressure on our material needs. I didn't realize until much later that I was also receiving a crash course in the nuances of human interaction in groups. While my group experience enriched me, it never occurred to me to write about it. Hippie and spiritual communes made most adults nervous back in those days, and the final blow to their reputation was delivered by the horrors of Charles Manson and Jim Jones. By the nineteen seventies, such a pall had spread over the notion of communal living it was no longer mentioned in polite society. The subject became taboo, and communes were relegated to the junk heap of the 60's. Looking back, I now see that negative attitudes about group living were inevitable in a society that worships individual enterprise. We grew up watching John Wayne conquering the west single-handedly, and most of us assume there's something wrong with us if we can't make it on our own. And anyway human beings are messy and hard to get along with. It's easier to retreat into homes with only one or two other individuals. The problem is, we're social creatures, and if we lean too far towards individuality, we undermine the foundation of family, community, and country. This is, in fact, a danger near whose brink we seem to be teetering. According to the scholar Robert Putnam, our civic engagement has been on a downward slide for decades.  In his book "Bowling Alone," Putnam says we are neglecting the communities that sustain us. The lack of participation could be a recipe for disaster, especially considering that aging boomers are supposed to overwhelm our social systems. So what will save us from this ominous prediction? Frank Schaeffer's memoir reminds me that the solution may already be locked away in the memories of millions of boomers who at one time were an idealistic bunch, trying to find new ways to work together to solve the world's problems. By resurrecting our former passion for groups, we may be able to solve Robert Putnam's civic disintegration as well as the boomer drain on society. Communal situations are not as far fetched as they might sound. Retirement communities as well as other types of shared living reduce loneliness at the sa 60's, Boomers, Philosophy Jerry Waxler no no