The first response is a furrowed brow, and that half-turn of the head which usually indicates skepticism, if not fear. “You mean… a cult? A band of hold-out hippies and drugs and loose morals?”

I suppose it could be any of the above; but it is not. In a world where most of us are trying to get by, trying to find and hold on to a job, to grow in our professions, and to finance the needs of our family, where we live and who we live with is often dictated as much as it is chosen. Or: given some fairly specific parameters within which we may make choices, we do the best we can. It’s generally good, or good enough.

What we find is community at the least common denominator: geography, and perhaps a bit of demographics, determines who will be your neighbor, and the most basic needs on Maslow’s Pyramid define those objectives and activities which you will share. How much will garbage removal cost? How are our taxes spent by the town? How much money does our sports team need for the coming season?

While buying a home in an established neighborhood is an adoptive act — the word neighborhood describing a loose collection of neighbors, in physical proximity — choosing who to live with and how to live cooperatively with them is an act of creation, where the lay of the land, the location of the homes, and the houses’ designs are decided upon and directed with a common vision and a common voice.

The creation begins by coming together around a common vision, and documenting what that vision is. Instead of being bound by the slightest commonalities, you identify others with similar beliefs, and in so doing make the connection between you that much stronger. When a group of people join with shared values, they accomplish much more in their personal lives and as a community: the word community having as its root “common” and “communal”. Walking together, you have somewhere to go.

In fact, many of our dreams may actually become realities, when we have the strength and staying power of numbers to support them. I have in my long and wandering past wanted to live in the country and have my hand on the soil, so I became a farmer for a year. My partner, whose family and personal history gave him more of a foundation for such things, not only survived that first year of 16-hour, physically-demanding days, but continues on a small family farm, a CSA, to this day. Still, the stresses of that life are countless when you are on your own: financial burdens and physical and psychological challenges are many, a sailboat navigating at the whim of the winds of the sea.

Once I had recovered from my success at farming (net $1,250 for 10 months labor), I took the challenge again in Brazil, where we owned a small holding — three acres or so — and watched with dismay as the seasonless climate drew those plants and insects out to strangle us. Not that there was malice involved, but Mother Nature did not sleep, and the exhaustive effort of managing a small holding while working elsewhere for pay was too great for me alone. Hiring others to take care of the property only stood the land at a distance, made a park of it, and removed the very reason I wished to be there in the first place! So the options seemed to be either become a bystander, of be swallowed by a yard-sized jungle.

It doesn’t work. You can try it, you can give all of your good energy to it, but if you want to embrace more in this life than work-home-television, you need friends to accompany you. If you have enough people living with you, and in agreement, you can keep animals, and no one person need be saddled with the constant demands of caring for them. You can have gardens and play in them, without responsibility for the entire property weighing you down. You can speak about things which are vital to you, and not only your one small voice will be heard, but a chorus of voices.

Intentional community allows you to turn off the automatic pilot, and choose your destiny. Destiny – a big word. You can turn off the automatic pilot, and choose your destiny.

Lunch break is over. Time to get back to work.