Dear Diary, some more personal history

[samvara]

My mother just sent me this link, it's a documentary on where I spent the first 4 years of my life. Sometimes my family just blows me away. I'm amazed at how many people I recognise - bonus points for spotting me.

Comments

[ironed_orchid]

Fascinating story.

[black-samvara.livejournal.com]

It sort of works with my little girl memories and then...doesn't

[alias_sqbr]

*blinks*

That was not what I was expecting given the description you gave :)

Wow.

[black-samvara.livejournal.com]

*g* I didn't realise it could be interpreted differently until you commented.

[baby-elvis.livejournal.com]

I watched it last week. Some seemed to have been badly scarred by it. I hope your Mum isn't one of them.

[black-samvara.livejournal.com]

I'll have to talk to her some more about it, usually it was my dad telling me stories about what it was like for him.

Susan is an awesome woman, articulate, artistic, expressive. She gave me a vacuum cleaner when I moved out of home.

[callistra.livejournal.com]

I'll save it to watch in a bit... but the Brotherhood?
Gosh

[black-samvara.livejournal.com]

Universal Brotherhood!

[callistra.livejournal.com]

No no, I was more agog at the fact that even I'd heard of the Brotherhood!
(I live under a rock, remember?)
:-)

[black-samvara.livejournal.com]

I'm stunned someone wanted to make a documentary about it...

[callistra.livejournal.com]

It made me cry in a number of points. It sounds so awesome. It sounds like the actualisation of so many things so many of us *still* yearn for.

How do you feel about it?

I do wonder why humans don't seem to work very well in communes. The Brotherhood sounds like it was working for sometime before it started to go off the rails. Do you think it's inherent human nature to do so?

[black-samvara.livejournal.com]

I alternate between feeling a bit cynical about alternative *everything* and accepting that I'm not exactly mainstream - although often I forget I'm not and then half way through a conversation I'll realise yet again that some people think *I'm* unconventional.

I think it was an interesting idea and very representative of the time. I'm still in contact with some of the adults and through my brothers, some of the other children. I am attracted to the idea of community and wanting to form one made up of people with similar goals - which I tend to do automatically what with being a social organiser and lemming like volunteer for community projects.

My memories are of wanting to play with the big girls, watching people milk goats, sliding down grassy hills, catching frogs, a snake under one of the caravans, living in a tipi, possums, wanting a story read to me... little girl stuff. My mother re-introduced me to Margie when I was about 18 and to her daughter who I didn't remember - although after they told the story where she threw a tomato at me and I bit her we bonded through mutual embarrassment. *grins*

As to why it failed, I think ignorance and fear were the problems. I don't think it's inherent in human nature, but I do think it's very hard work to be honest about what you need and want and to be clear enough to know what you need/want in the first place - and then you need a second being who is able to hear you and respond with honesty and clarity. Having 200 all at once calls for amazing leadership and generosity of spirit. I don't think we get taught those skills in our culture and I think it's hard (but not impossible!) to develop them.

[nerdus-maximus2.livejournal.com]

Ignorance and fear of what exactly? I'm curious...

[justadecoy.livejournal.com]

I've just finished watching and it was very interesting.

I started watching out of a sense of "piece of my friend's life offered publicly" if that makes sense

I kept watching because that sense of community has always interested me and this was no different.

[black-samvara.livejournal.com]

It looks *really* alien to me when I watch it, I was too small to be involved with the ideology in any meaningful way.