No, not the Beatles lyric. Rather, a multi-generational group of related or unrelated people living together under one roof. What?! You mean like it used to be among immigrant populations and farmers in America long ago? Like it still is in many parts of the world? Yes… emphatically… yes!

As I sit alone in my 3000 square foot home I am embarrassed by the sheer unused space and overwhelmed by the deafening silence. It seems just a few seconds ago I was a busy work-from-home mother with four energetic children underfoot. For years this place buzzed with a life of its own as some industrious spirit cooked or built or created or cleaned something somewhere! Sadly, all industry has now fallen to my husband and me and I must say it’s extremely BORING… and costly… and exhausting… and, frankly, lonely. It feels as if much of the meaning has gone missing.

That’s why I want to bring it back. Not in some crunchy commune or dreamy academic kind of way, but rather a very hands-on, practical shared living experience. Sort of like a Montessori Adult & Children’s House where the community members get to sleep over night. In an authentic Montessori Children’s House, the work-space (classroom) truly belongs to the children. In it they create a micro-community with shared responsibility for function and maintenance. Materials are designed for auto-education and older children who’ve internalized the rules guide and monitor the younger children so very little adult interference is necessary. The primary job of the Montessori directress is to prepare the environment – rotating and refreshing materials and experiences to keep them attractive, relevant and engaging – and providing lessons to children as needed so they can attempt and ultimately master new and/or more challenging work.

In the multi-generational environment I imagine, much of the hands-on preparation work (aka the heavy lifting, yard work and grocery shopping!) would be done by those most capable of doing it. In practical terms this would mean that those of prime income earning age and talent would work outside the home while those on either end of the spectrum would fill in on both sides and the middle. Elders, adults-at-home, young people and small children would be responsible for a variety of specific age- and skill-appropriate maintenance tasks. Many hands make light work, so working together would be encouraged and supported, thus serving to strengthen relationships as well as the household fabric. Additionally, elders would be regularly called upon for their insight, expertise and wisdom… especially as reading coaches and homework helpers!

Of course a variety of cost-sharing details would need to be worked out and care roles would shift as elders got, well, elderly… but I think if the home culture were attended to with a great deal of care and the inter-generational relationships were built very honestly over years then that support – both the financial and the physical kind – would flow as a matter of course out of gratitude and love.

Hm-mm...what’s for dinner?

Imagine everything.

I imagine you broke a sweat. It’s a big job.

So big the easier softer way is to just gather a few peers and reinvent the wheel. The arduous process of asking questions and seeing what’s already been done is at the same time humbling and tedious.

Yet the reality is we live in a time of accumulated knowledge. Experience compounds and insight is the effect of all the investigations, wonder and “aha!” moments along the way to…now.

The practical effect of looking to elders or already thunk thoughts is similar to asking the person who knows the neighborhood for directions. They’ve been there awhile, are familiar with the neighborhood and most likely have insights that we may miss or take lots of time discovering, if discovering at all.

This may be a reason why so many meetings are deemed so wasteful by so many. Rather than building on generational insight, experience and knowledge – we begin anew every time. Part ego puff coupled with a lack of collective homage to those who blazed the path to our comfort we tend to pass by the shelves littered with reports and studies that hold the answers to present challenges.

Why?

Who wants to “do” when it’s easier to “tell”. Coming up with the idea is infinitely easier than actually doing the idea. Yet there is always one who bucks the trend and embarks down that lonely path of action. In this case his name is Jim Pfiffer. He listened and reported on the ideas for years as a journalist. When he retired his commitment to the greater Elmira area moved him to find a vehicle for his energies.

Then, as if by magic, he took a report off the shelf (as opposed to convening another meeting) and made it so. Yup, that’s it up above.

That was in 2008. Eight years later Friends of the Chemung River Watershed is the best example of what can be done by citizens when they…don’t have another meeting, but begin doing.

Wherever you find yourself, take comfort in the likely possibility that many have shared the same quandary before. Look for what they thought and maybe what they almost did. Then pick up from there. Often the next step was laid out and all that’s needed to be done is the doing.

We might not even need a meeting to for that!