Why I'm in the Network For a New Culture

Whatever attracted me, it was certainly not the number of readily available babes. Can't have everything can ya?!!!

So, what specifically attracted me to the Network? Quite simply the people that I've met over the last year and a half. The intelligence, commitment, high energy and love that I have experienced since May, 1994 are beyond anything that I ever imagined.

Last December when I visited Arcata, a wonderful woman invited me not only to share her home, but also a Swedish ceremony called Santa Lucia where children come to the house in the middle of the night dressed in white, carrying candles, singing, and bearing sweets. The purpose of the ceremony is to bring the light into the darkness. I don't know if I can convey in writing the deep emotional feelings that this evoked in me--I see this as part of the network's purpose.

My interest in living with other adults in intentional households and communities goes back well over 25 years, and I have had the good fortune to live cooperatively with small groups of people for most of my adult life. My dream over the years has been that these small groups would focus on some larger vision including such things as ecological issues, grass roots problem solving, working for whirled peas (oops, I mean, world peace) and changing the way that people organize their intimate lives. As a child I saw that many of my parents' friends were unhappy and getting divorced. As a teenager I saw people going steady, then breaking up, then suffering heart break. I decided that there must be a better way.

So, I was inspired when Stephen Davis came back from Germany two years ago and showed a video and slide show of the ZEGG community. It seemed like a fairy tale. The slide show and video were not all that well done, but something still inspired me. When Stephen came to our hotel suite after the presentation, I told him that if he was serious about this project, I was interested. I later received a letter from him informing me about a workshop he was planning in May, 1994 and a tour with members of ZEGG in March of that year. I invited him to give a presentation at my house in San Francisco. I sent out 25 invitations, and I expected that about 10 people to attend. You can imagine my surprise when 45 people showed up. And the ZEGG group--Sten, Kitti and Frieda--were warm, genuine people. I enjoyed their frankness and openness (what we now call "transparency"). I went to the May, 1994 workshop with no expectations; I had no idea what would happen. There were more "good vibes" at the workshop than at any other gathering I had attended in the "alternative lifestyle" movement in 25 years. I now realize that what was different was that the people conducting the workshop had a vision that was larger than "multiple relationships" or "open sexuality." This greater vision is what keeps me involved in the Network. That, and the fact that I am living in an intentional household with two other wonderful people (Dale and Fairlight) who are also committed to positive social transformation.

Summer Camp, 1995 continued to inspire me. I had the opportunity to meet a lot of people I had never seen before. Many of these people came to the network after reading Jim Nollman's article in New Age Magazine. I was pleased to see that those attending Summer Camp were not the same old crowd of people who I've seen at "alternate lifestyle" and conferences over the years.

In the last year and a half my life has become a new book with many exciting new chapters: moving to Eugene and getting an apartment with Dale; exploring living together with Dale, Fairlight and Valerie; and moving into a house with Dale and Fairlight. Dale was gone for over two months and I was gone for a month.

I am excited about the possibilities of creating real models for social change: intentional households, villages, city groups, worker-owned cooperative businesses. I am also excited about working with the group putting out this magazine, New Culture, which I hope will reach many new people we don't know, but who have also been looking for a way to create a life free of fear and violence. I am excited about having my household, LoveGarden Circle, expand as we meet new, high energy, loving, intelligent, committed people. I look forward to living in a large village which will have both private and public spaces and plenty of room for people to garden and children to play.

I hope that we will share ideas about how to create and nurture the models for social change I mentioned earlier. I want to meet new people and to create a space that allows what needs to happen to happen. I believe that this Network will continue to grow organically. We are at a pivotal point in history--that is to say we are at the right place at the right time.

--Bill Cerf