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Enough Talk ... Let's Get On With It!

Posted on Mar 3rd, 2008 by asecondlifediary : A Second Life Diary asecondlifediary
Islepond2
IN THE PAST WEEK I've been thinking, "Enough of all this TALK about establishing an intentional community - let's just get on with it!     

Those of you who read Dave Pollard's blog, "How To Save The World" will know that he has been talking about Intentional Community vs Accidental Community, and the speculation that it is the accidental communities that have the greater probability of succeeding, based solely on the fact that they HAVE to.   People thrown together by circumstances beyond their control, often have a vested interest in making sure their community succeeds because really, when all is said and done, they don't have any other option.   Intentional communities on the other hand, usually come about because people have made some sort of decision to come together and form a community.   If it doesn't work out, they probably have other options to fall back on.

In the several months that Cal and I have been together, we have both been open to the idea of meeting other like-minded souls and forming our Intentional Community, but as the weeks and months have passed without any potential community mates sticking their heads above the crowd, we were both beginning to feel that perhaps it wasn't going to happen after all.

But, as luck would have it, we have gotten to know our neighbours on the island where we live and just recently, the talk turned to, "Why don't we all get together and buy an island of our own?"   "This would reduce our monthly tier payments (a fee paid to the person who had the island 'created').  

Several of us got together today to throw a few ideas around and it was fascinating to see the process of us all putting our ideas forward - our preferences, deal breakers, concerns, priorities.   The one good thing is that we already know we get along well, and we all know how important it is to get along well with your neighbours.     So that is a good start.

I know Cal has concerns about people's need to 'own' land or to have control, so that will be a major challenge - for us all to take responsibility for things without the need to have that sense of ownership most of us seem to need.

Speaking for myself, I have a very strong territorial streak and have already voiced my desire to have some space that I can call my own.   One of the other women in the group voiced a similar desire (must be a female thing to want to have their own nest).   

I suggested that we use this month (before the tiers are due again at the beginning of April) to 'practise' how our community would work, before we actually commit to buying an island together.   We can join all our land up physically (it's possible for us to 'terraform' the land so that waterways etc., can be eliminated and land masses butt up against one another) and see how we all go sharing a common space together.

I'm really excited about this idea of us all buying an island together.   The next step will be to see how the practicalities work out.   Several of us are interested in terraforming and gardening, so it will be interesting to see whether we can all work together and if we share a common creative vision.

We all get along well together NOW ... but is it likely to remain the case when we don't have our own separate little 'kingdoms' to retreat to (and tell the others to bugger off from?)   Do we all need that safeguard of being able to control our immediate environment?   

SOOOO..... it looks like we are FINALLY moving forward with this.   About time!   It's going to be an interesting experiment.

The photo up the top is an aerial view of most of the current island ... the area Cal and I currently own is at the front of the pic.



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Tagged with: Second Life, Intentional Community, Accidental Community, Island Buying, Territorial, Nesting

Creating A Second Life

Posted on Mar 17th, 2008 by asecondlifediary : A Second Life Diary asecondlifediary
Bijouxcinema

WHILE SECOND LIFE PROVIDES an ideal forum for creating a new life and expressing creativity, there is also a very strong spiritual component to our lives there as well.

I was reminded of this not so long ago when my 'excitement' got the better of me and I wanted to take someone else's artistic vision and use it as just a decoration in the cinema I was building on our island.   I wrote to Baron Grayson, one of the many talented designers and artists in SL asking to use one of his textures (which is basically a pattern or a design used in SL to 'decorate' buildings and objects).   Baron creates unique environments at his several sims, which include Intempesta and incorporate Relic, his retail outlet.

His textures and items are eagerly sought after, and I'm embarrassed now to be among the many people who failed to comprehend the very delicate and personal nature of creation.    Because some things are so easy to get in SL, it's easy to be led into the "I want it, get it now!" kind of mentality.

I am indebted to Baron for bringing me back to a more loftier ideal ...       I had written to him asking for permission to use a very small section of one of his magnificient drapes as a colour swatch on my cinema balcony seats.    I feel quite venal now, saying that I would keep our little 'arrangement' secret if he granted me the use of the texture.     But this is about Baron, not me and his reply serves as a beacon I think for high-minded ideals.     Here it is:

I appreciate your asking me directly. Selling textures is historically something I do not do. I'm immensely flattered that you would ask about one of my textures but I'm very uncomfortable giving permission to release them, in any way through someone else's builds, because it was not how I had designed the texture to be used. 

For me textures are more complex than just the silly graphic they are in RL. The textures are part of a story and an original artistic vision completely created by me to express myself. The items in my shop are rather like children and are a direct extension of the sim itself. When someone takes a texture from that vision, it removes it from the purpose I had intended for it and that lessens my overall design dream. 

I would much rather you use another texture for your personal builds simply because if you do, it removes the possibility that this texture can be easily shared by mistake. I believe your sincerity that you would never dream of doing so, or breathing a word...but I actually am asked dozens of times a day for my textures and if I quietly and secretly said yes to each of them....my textures would spread across SL faster than wildfire. It's dangerous for me to begin making allowances to any request however much I like a person and am flattered by the person's intended use.

A few weeks ago there was someone that took a snapshot of my sim land textures and used them for personal use. She admitted it through guilt and asked for my permission in the end. I carefully composed my reasons why I asked them to remove use of the textures. I share it with you now, only to help explain my passion behind my designs and hand painted textures....not to cause you discomfort. It simply gets across the love that goes behind the sims and the designs here.

It's such an easy thing to do, take those screencaps (screen photos).     The danger with doing this is with time it becomes common place and the ethics of the act becomes lessor in one's mind.   What I ask of visitors is to give the experience of the four sims a value..and a protection..to preserve it.   To encourage its growth and development.   To realise that the magic they experience there belongs there and that it's right. To hold it safe. For each person that visits..to understand and value the meaning of it being there at all. 

It's a place away from everything else.   People have used it as a get away when they were in their last days, sick with RL medical problems. They've married there. They've made it a personal destination when their lives get a little chaotic. The place itself, though virtual, soaks in the experiences and the memories. It has such stories.   You must feel it, if you love it so. 

I ask that people slow down and remember how to keep something a personal treasure. To forget greed....to forget want and a need to have. Just enjoy it for the thing that it is...and take your stand when something is worth guarding.

The thought behind the sims is to provide a unique vision of dreams and emotion that I want to give to the public. In that way it's a living evolving artform to me. I bequeath the experience to visitors but the art itself is mine because it's a direct extension of myself and works with all of the other elements of the sim.   I'm often asked if I can sell my textures but that act would cheapen the art and make it less spectacular.   Less special.   Common and found in other places besides the original sims it was specially created for. The meaning of the sims would be diluted if I sold parts of it away. Little chips that would eventually leave nothing left. The textures..the builds...all of the pieces to the puzzle would mean nothing without the other and my main focus is not to make money.

I hope I have not made your build design unnessessarily complex by refusing permission for this texture. That was certainly never my intent.

Sincerely,
Baron Grayson
RELIC

What I want for our Intentional Community is that this same sense of purity exists there.   What Cal and I hope to create IS an artistic and philosophical expression of the journey we are taking together, and the journey we hope to share with others.

Mia
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Tagged with: Second Life, Intentional Community, Baron Grayson, Intempesta, Relic, Morality, Integrity, Artistic Vision

One Door Closes and Another Opens

Posted on Mar 25th, 2008 by asecondlifediary : A Second Life Diary asecondlifediary
Aerialisland
LAST NIGHT WAS VERY DRAMATIC and signals an end to our plans to buy the island where we now live with our neighbours.

As we all know from John Lennon - "Life is what happens to you when you're busy making other plans" and so, while I thought things were percolating along nicely for our big purchase, 'life' was about to jump up and bite me.

Cal (who has a wonderful blog on How To Save The World, which you can access here) and Max (who has joined our Intentional Community and is a member of a real life Intentional Community in Sweden - check out his blog here) had sent out a DRAFT Proposal Partnership Agreement and Prospectus to the other people who live on the island we currently 'rent'.    This was several days ago, and to my knowledge none of our neighbours had contacted either Cal or Max to question anything in the proposals.   I had expected that at some point, we would all meet and discuss how we would go about this land purchase; what each of us wanted from it etc.

Wrong!

I had approached one of our adjoining neighbours, Abbie, who hardly ever comes to the island, to see if (a) she was interested in coming on board with us in the land purchase; or (b) if she wasn't, and planned to sell her land at any point, would she consider selling it to us.

Estate Islands are usually divided up into 16 separate parcels.   Our island 'ownership' was broken up into:

Cal & Mia - 3 parcels
Cinn & Dick - 4 parcels
Bella & Ringo - 3 parcels
Vincent - 2 parcels
Abbie - 3 parcels
Rachel - 1 parcel

Abbie said yes, she would be happy to sell because she had other land interests elsewhere and wanted to cut down on her holdings.

Cal and I planned to keep four of the parcels and then use the other two for Max OR another couple we knew who MIGHT have been planning to join us as part of the Intentional Community.     But essentially, the six parcels would be dedicated to the community.

I was keen for the island residents to get together so we could discuss Cal and Max's proposals and I went to meet with Cinn and Dick about a possible meeting with everyone.

Before I knew it, I was being blasted with quite a tirade about how we were trying to take over the island and MAKING everyone go around naked and live in a cave!    lol     Which is quite a ludicrous suggestion, but may end up being the comment that we laugh about in the future.

Cal had provided a very comprehensive and detailed partnership agreement, detailing financial responsibilities etc., but there was nothing in there about MAKING anyone do anything and was very clearly marked DRAFT at the top.

One of the other sticking points appeared to be Max's comment in his Prospectus - "Buildings are not needed."    (In Second Life, it doesn't rain, so there is no need for protection from the weather and no one can steal your property, so you can leave it out in the open).

The island as it is now, does not allow any business, and it also seems that Max's statement that, "... the only commerce that is appropriate is the selling of info materials to promote the spread of the message" was interpreted that we were going to MAKE everyone swear an oath of allegiance to some weird cult.

It dawned on me that our fellow island residents were getting more and more enraged as I struggled to understand just what it was that they were so agitated about.

"What message?!" demanded Dick.    "We don't want to walk around naked and live in a cave!"    "You can't have more than four parcels!" shouted Bella.   "And you've pushed Abbie out!"   "Don't act dumb!    You're just trying to build up power so you can outvote us!"     And similar comments in that vein.

It took awhile for the penny to drop for me - they were worried that we were positioning ourselves to take over and force them to live the way we thought everyone should live.   

Second Life offers us the opportunity to create our ideal world.   

For some people that is a life crammed full of stuff!   Huge houses (in a place where it never rains and no one can steal from you); luxurious cars (in a place where you can tp wherever you want to go);  boats (in a place where sailable water is a rarity); clothes; toys; activities; a Friends List a mile long; endless clubbing; sexual partners coming out the wing-wang; and the indulgence of our every desire.

Other people have a vision of paradise - of tropical rainforests; nature protected; animals gambolling, safe from predators; people in love and caring and true in their relationships with one another; and social justice is not just an idealistic notion.

Some, like the lovely Bella and Ringo, just want to have fun.   They want to have all the things they don't have in First Life and use SL as a place of relaxation and merriment.   I have no argument with that.    We should all be free to use SL to have our dreams come true.

Others, like dear friends of mine Shava Suntzu and Tuna Oddfellow, and Sue Stonebender and Baron Grayson, use SL as a forum for their social justice work.   Each to his or her own.   And that's exacty what we want the Intentional Community to achieve - for everyone involved to be free to create their ideal world.    I see this happening through conversations, political action, benevolence, love, fun, creativity and other ways I may not have even contemplated yet.

I just re-read Cal's DRAFT Proposed Partnership Agreement and the points that stand out to me are:

"I am committed to pioneering a lifestyle that will serve as an example of ecological sustainability ...

I will weigh the implications of my actions, continually striving to minimize my negative impact and increase my positive impact on the land and community.

I will participate in the creation of a physical and social structure and culture that will move us towards long-term sustainability and social equity."

What disappoints me more than anything is the fact that both documents were STARTING POINTS for group discussion and instead of our neighbours doing that - discussing their concerns with us, they appear to have speculated amongst themselves and came to a very unflattering conclusion about us!      One that questioned our personal integrity.   

As far as I'm concerned, Max made two comments which could have been seen as being dictatorial or unreasonable:

"Buildings are not needed" and "The only commerce that is appropriate is the selling of info materials to promote spread of the message."

I don't agree with these statements myself!   Woman have an innate need for a shelter of some sort - we are just wired for safety and security and I do believe we see that in our home.     As far as the commerce goes, I would have negotiated for a village style market place which could have a regular monthly event where others could bring goods to sell or exchange.

That's what a community is all about - negotiating what you want and compromising for the common good.

The diatribe served to show me two things - it highlighted a basic lack of trust (Dick accused us of being "underhanded") and a complete lack of conflict resolution skills.   

Several times Dick had commented that whomever owned the island was 'god' and then  immediately stated, "Well, I will buy the island in my name and you can all just pay me your share."    My antennae had gone up from then, but I accepted that SOMEONE had to pony up their credit card to pay for the land but thought this issue (of who would actually have the island in their name), would be discussed when we all got together at a meeting to discuss these things.

(The trust issue relates to the fact that the island would officially 'belong' to whomever paid for it.   It would be in their name.     We would have to trust that Dick wouldn't, at some point, just tell us to piss off, and there would be nothing we could do about it - he was the owner / god).     But trust went both ways ... Dick would have to trust us that we each would pay the monthly tier due on our share of the island).

The accusations that they had levelled at me/us of being underhanded and doing something sneaky, naturally spoke to our own trustworthiness and personal integrity, and obviously, they felt we were the ones who couldn't be trusted!

So ... okay, these people were not who we are meant to create our community with.    

We will find those who are.

We are already on our way to doing that ...     Maybe it will be you.



(Photo above:   Our current parcel is at the top left hand side of the photo).











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Tagged with: Second Life, Intentional Community, Drama, John Lennon, New Plans