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Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Putting it into operation

The purchasing of our house is going smoothly. I've become less interested in The Next Worker and more obsessed with working on the house and working the land. Since the purpose of my blog was to document my transition to a radical life, I wonder if living the agrarian lifestyle (or our best attempt at it) will complete that mission. I will no longer be in a state of flux; I will be a Catholic Worker, a title I would not have given myself up to this point.
The next phase requires not a new blog, but a whole new online identity. This is all still, 4 or more months down the road but our new goal (my husband's and mine) is to have a website devoted to the homestead, yet unnamed, and document our agrarian Worker lifestyle. Day mentioned many times the young families with 'a toehold on the land' who were eking out an existence. Some failed, some succeeded and their voices would be so valuable to us now. Thankfully, many new families are heading back to the land in one way or another and there are plenty of resources and people to talk to. Technology has brought the radicals together in an international online arena where stories can be shared, debated and left to inspire others.
Of course, the obvious difference between our website and other homesteaders wold be the emphasis on the Catholic Worker mission; the vision of Maurin and Day, and utter reliance not only on ourselves but the Church. It is our goal to live on the land, as Day envisioned and prove such a thing is possible for the modern family. Hopefully, we'll even benefit from it. Maybe someone else will too. So stay tuned for more developments. Blogging will be light as I read every book from my local library on chickens, root cellars and gardening.

Up To Catholics


1. Ralph Adams Cram says:
What I propose
is that Catholics
should take up
this back-to-the-land problem
and put it into operation.

2. Why Catholics?
Because they realize
more clearly than any others
the shortcomings
of the old capitalist
industrial system.

3. They, better than others,
see the threat
that impends.

4. They alone understand
that while the family
is the primary social unit,
the community comes next.

5. And there is
no sound
and righteous
and enduring community
where all its members
are not substantially
of one mind.

-Peter Maurin, Easy Essay

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