By Ann Kreilkamp | January 6, 2016

Let’s see, how many single-car garages per square block in a suburban neighborhood with small homes? (32?) How many double garages in a suburban square block with large homes? (8?) And, what kind of zoning antiquities must be rubbed up against and, ultimately, changed, in order to experience the beautiful results of the voluntary diminution of personal space (which allows for population increase, expanding the number of human exchanges, thereby building resilience)?

And then, of course, if young people live in the garage, us old ones in the big house can call on their energy and vision to convert our small or massive lawns into permaculture paradises, and, as we age, to assist or partner in other ways. Alternatively, if old ones live in the garage, we can grandparent the neighborhood children in the big houses. I envisage a community in which everyone feels useful — to each other, to the land, to the whole; mutually indebted, creating with our mutual gifting, a thick web of nourishing interconnectedness, spilling from this cornucopia of gratitude and safety.

(P.S. My motto as a permaculturist: “Unless you’re rubbing up against existing laws, you’re probably not doing anything. My solution to this dilemma: get to know the real live persons who work in the city departments of my town. Learn how to see myself as one player in a gracious drama of give and take; work together to forge a common way forward. It can be done. We are doing it.)