Dear friends,
We’ve been working out this Simone Weil Public Household/Catholic Worker House for a whole month now, on the dot! Let us walk you through what’s coming up and what the first month has held. Please share the email!! If you would like to see actual and projected budgets, to see how and how much the house could use support, please respond and ask!
We’re four now! Two weeks after Susana and Doug joined us from the St Francis “outside” community Monica joined us from the same. You can guess at the quality of her presence from her stated desire to share with “inside people” the modes of life and resource sharing lived by “outside people”, to the benefit of both. Van dwelling artist/environmental activists LeAnn and Nathan have entered into closer Weil orbit, as we’ve all found that between their work for the house and our ability to offer indoor necessities a wonderful symbiosis has developed, even as we vie to the death for alpha symbiote.
Conversations with our extended community have us on the verge of entering into: relationship with St Andrew’s church on Alberta, and the beginnings of “IMBY” network to connect individuals in need with helping households; and, we’re recognizing that for now our focus for housing and resource connections is one-at-a-time, particular fits for members of the St Francis Dining Hall outside community.
Behind the scenes we’re still working to form the non profit entity that will be the non profit tenant host for Simone Weil house. Look for it to be called In My Backyard (IMBY), focusing on realizing the hidden capacities of existing existing households and domestic properties for housing, resource sharing, community, and back-to-the-future economic initiative.
Coming Up:
For August our focus is a representative offering of the pieces articulated in the vision; so, as “a domestic community at the intersection of a Catholic Worker house of hospitality to those in housing need, and a public household serving as node for neighborhood-based social, economic, and intellectual life” we’re having:
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Intro Dinner and Discussion, tonight, 8/2 @6p
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Every Saturday Potluck Brunch, 10a-1p. Come to chat, share food, build relationships, and offer or use resources we can be a medium for (coming soon: permanent rummage/donations space & library)
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Every Monday Open House Days, 8:30a-6p. Come share co-working space and the rhythm of a day, or any part thereof: mindfulness meditation and morning prayer (psalm and Gospel reading) at 8:30; wifi and co-working spaces throughout the house, porch, and yards; good coffee, oatmeal, and (maybe) lunch snacks out; hospitality for showers, laundry, plug-in, food, and phone use (folks are invited); You are encouraged to contribute to this with monetary or other donations or with hospitality help if you are able to, but in the public household economy this is all on the basis of trust and shared responsibility.
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Every Wednesday Catholic Worker Dinner & Discussion @7:00p: If you are interested in going deeper here through discussion, formation reading, prayer, and perhaps (no obligations) community responsibility in Weil House, or for collaborating with us in the IMBY network, this would be a great time to join. We’re beginning this Wednesday with reading out loud from the beginning of Dorothy Day’s The Long Loneliness. Simone Weil and Peter Maurin coming up.
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First Friday Event/s: Save the dates starting Friday 9/6 @6. Details to follow, but expect potluck dinner, topical discussion, and open (house) mass or prayer
For thoughtful consideration:
“As a public household, we share life in the confidence that a house – a home – can extend an open invitation and serve a public purpose whose functions – though normally associated with commercial or institutional spaces – are shaped instead by household characteristics such as belonging and responsibility-based economy.”
Excerpts from Dorothy Day’s The Long Loneliness (We’ll start reading her on Wednesdays, and then move to Simone Weil, so buy a copy if you can!)
A PDF of Simone Weil’s Gravity and Grace (The intro by farmer philosopher Gustav Thibon is the best introduction to her life and thought.)
Finally, Please consider making a donation, ideally recurring. This month besides the housing and resource costs we will be purchasing multiple necessary insurance policies and possibly dealing with other significant transition costs as we move to non profit status and officially inhabit the house as a program. The insurance costs are yet to be raised, but I am confident that with some gifts we will have the money within a week.
Peace be with you! And we hope to see you here soon, Bert Fitzgerald