questions by Mark Ludwig and answers by Patrick Mullins

WHY ARE WE HERE?

1. is it for ourselves or something beyond personal satisfaction? 2. what do you bring to this place? 3. what can you give, what must you take? 4. how long will you stay? 5. what have you done this week? 6. what's your personal agenda? 7. who do you love here? 8. who pisses you off? 9. what have you learned about permaculture? 10. what have you learned about art? 11. what have you learned about community? 12. what have you learned about yourself? 13. why are we here? 14. why West Lima, why not Viola or Richland Center [two nearby towns, each larger than West Lima]? 15. why do some of the neighbors hate or fear us? 16. what do you want to do with your life? 17. is this the best of all possible worlds? 18. is hell really other people? 19. is hell the mall or Walmart? 20. is love the answer? 21. will this school ever really get fixed? 22. can you trust you fellow humans? 23. is anarchy a viable social basis? 24. is T.V. a drug? 25. can we count on you?

meditations 5/13/95

Why I'm Here (response meditations)

1. both 2. energy, information, skills, critique 3. see #2 4. as long as I can stand it 5. gardening, book design, cleaning, librarianizing, collage, tape composition, conversation, crying, sex, sleeping, eating 6. don't know that I have one beyond personal freedom as far as I can take it without dicking others over 7. everyone 8. see #7 9. common sense organic gardening meets increased environmental awareness 10. anyone can make it more people should 11. worth the hassles 12. my what (i.e. it is malleable 13. attractive propaganda 14. Stephen Freer 15. misunderstanding and socialization 16. live 17. it's where we are 18. depends on the people 19. little bit of both, some of #18 20. could you repeat the question? 21. I hope so; I'm doing what I can 22. see #21 23. see #22 24. depends on how it's used/abused 25. yes, can I count on you?

5/?/95 -- P

(this is not a joke, o.k.)

thanks, Mark. No doubt the time has come to do basic question assessment + I'm here to play along.

Works Cited and Consulted

And, Miekal and Was, Elizabeth. Sustaining the Hyperkulture: Toward an Ecology of Information. Dreamtime Village: Xexoxial Editions, 1992.

Bey, Hakim. T.A.Z. New York: Autonomedia, 1990.

Bookchin, Murray. Post-Scarcity Anarchism. San Francisco: Ramparts Press, 1971.

Bouvard, Marguerite. The Intentional Community Movement: Building a New Moral World. Port Washington: Kennikat Press, 1975.

Gardener, Hugh. The Children of Prosperity: Thirteen Modern American Communes. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1978.

Kanter. Commitment and Community: Communes and Utopias in Sociological Perspective. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1972.

Katz, Elia. Armed Love. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1971.

Melville, Keith. Communes in the Counter Culture: Origins, Theories, Styles of Life. New York: Morrow, 1972.

Mollison, Bill. Permaculture: A Designers' Manual. Tyalgum: Tagari Publications, 1988.

Oved, Yaacov. Two Hundred Years of American Communes. New Brunswick: Transaction Books, 1988.

Rexroth, Kenneth. Communalism: From Its Origins to the Twentieth Century. New York: The Seabury Press, 1974.

Service, Elman R. The Hunters. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1966.

Welch, Chuck, ed. Eternal Network: a Mail Art Anthology. Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 1995.