A Community of Our Own

A friend of mine founded a group at the Oxford University chaplaincy (i.e. my house) called "Catholicism and Economics." We're focused primarily on distributism, an economic idea that focuses on keeping things small and simple to increase human happiness. While the discussion of sweeping systematic change is interesting, I don't want to start a revolution. I just want to develop new tools and new ways of thinking for Adam and I to share a simple, happy, sustainable life together.

The past few weeks, we've been reading E. F. Shumacher's Small Is Beautiful. He focuses on how small, rural communities enrich people's lives. While I think he vilifies cities more than they deserve, I agree with his ideas about community. Namely, humans are happy with it and unhappy without it. As Aristotle observed, man is political--or else a madman or a superman.

The idea of community is one Adam and I have had to seriously consider over the past few months. His family is in Denver. He loves the city and his family, but he hasn't lived there since he was in middle school. Similarly, my family is in Atlanta. I love my family, but I don't even like the city. Largely through my own fault, I don't have much of a community left there either.

Our other two options are a bit more promising. Adam lives now in Seattle. I lived there over the summer in a house named Matilda. Matilda gathers a community to herself in a truly amazing way. Not only are the people spectacular, but the city is amazingly beautiful. It also makes simple, sustainable living surprisingly easy.

We both went to undergrad at George Washington University in Washington, DC. Again, we have wonderful and supportive friends there. The city is also the site of vibrant, young Catholic culture. The school at which I'll be teaching, the Brookewood School, is full of spectacular, holy staff, students, and parents. Many of them have welcomed me--and Adam by extension--into their families. That's the kind of environment Adam and I both really seek for a happy and spiritually healthy workplace.

So, we're left with an abundance of good choices. But each one brings its own costs. We both love our parents. The idea of being hours away from them for the rest of our lives in heartbreaking. On the other hand, living in a city where people your age share your interests and worldviews is also a very important part of human life.

For now, Adam and I have decided that DC offers the best of all options. I have a job there that I love; he's got the possibility of doing work which is actually productive and truly rewarding. We're not all that far from my parents, when one compares it to the distance away I currently am; DC is actually only three hundred miles further from Denver than Seattle. And we have friends in DC, plus the strong potential for more, who really care about us. I can't say it was an easy decision, or that it will last forever, or even that we're sure it was the right one. But, for now, I'm very excited about being a part of a community a love while I start my new family.