Talking Points: What Makes An Abundant Community?

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• Consumption has isolated communities (neighbors and families)
• There is an overwhelming belief that the good life depends on consumption.
• Strong local community is a necessity.
• Safety and Security should be mainly on the citizen.
• Health:  we are disconnected as a neighborhood, we create business for the specialist in the medical system.
• Economy:  Establishing incentives to create small business and local economy
• Food:  best done through local production and food activists must be created
• Learn to care for family in a way that cannot be paid for
• Everything from outsourcing to superficial nature of society selling perfection and immortality
• We are enslaved by debt
• Choosing a satisfied life takes commitment
• In accepting our basic human nature, communication is key: Storytelling has to take its place at the table.  (What is your narrative?)
• Key ingredients:  kindness, generosity, cooperation and forgiveness and art (spoke briefly on these topics)
• Make a list of resources in your community and the community you serve.
• Bridging the generation gap with active, relevant gift sharing, such as young people teaching computers/Internet to seniors
• Building associations based on these abundant community principles and connecting them. This requires work. Planning, writing, networking,  communication (especially with strangers), etc. Use block parties, clean-ups, and social events
• The abundant community has specific "Tenets" that must be understood: 

                                                                   a) What we have is enough
                                                                   b) We have the capacity to provide what we need in the face of the                                                                                   human condition
                                                                   c) We organize our world in a context of cooperation and satisfaction
                                                                   d) We are responsible for each other
                                                                   e) We live with the reality of the human condition

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