October 29, 1980

Dear Mom

A real pleasure to get your letter. I'd just walked down to the communal kitchen area, about 1/2 mile from my lodge, to bring up a load of squash and pumpkins, when someone brought the mail in. A welcome surprise.

Lorien is the name of the community. It is not a religious community as such, though there is a mixed bag of religions practiced here. I guess it is an experiment in healthy living - we eat organicly grown foods, (almost entirely vegetarian) use saunas and sweat baths, and live outdoors quite a bit. I do a good bit of hiking and horse riding in my spare time.

Thirty years! Congratulations! I know its been a rocky road often enough, but surely the good outweighs the bad. I presume the next three decades will be a lot more tranquil.

Life here is simple, yet complicated at the same time. I'm acting as teacher to a number of kids, who reduce my lodge to ruin every day by the time they finish their lessons. Teaching kids can place you in an awkward position. They try to make you a counterbalance to their parents: "but Mom, Ron said it was okay to..." and "but Ron , Mom said it was okay to..." ...do whatever. I've decided to hold class in a different building than the one I live in, for the sake of peace of mind. (Gods! How did you put up with all us kids for 3 decades?)

As I mentioned earlier, we've just purchased a huge load of winter squash and pumpkins (two pickup truck loads, actually). Should be enough to keep us in vegetables through the winter. We've also just picked up a load of cantalopes, eggplant, watermelons and orther gourdish produce.

Vegetables such as those form the bulk of our diet, along with different grains (wheat, millet, buckwheat) and salad greens. No dairy products or meat, apart from the occasional venison or fish from the pond. Our protein sources are mainly grains, nuts and soybeans.

Lorien is more like a tiny village than a planned intentional community. Everyone lives in their own separate homes, most of which are out of sight of each other. One building is a library/school/community space, another a kitchen and dining area; the rest are private dwellings. There is a flock of chickens and a brood of guineau hens, a horse, two donkeys, five ponies, three dogs and a cat. There are deer, elk, bobcats and coyotes in the forests that surround Lorien on all sides.

Our nearest neighbors are a sheep farmer and a logger. The rest of the land around us is federal land administered by the Bureau of Land Management. Wilderness, pretty much.

Listened to the Reagan/Carter debate last night. As expected, neither had anything worthwhile to say. Amazing how insulated I feel here; as though the presidential campaign is nothing more than an especially boring drama on the radio.

I'm glad you're keeping up with your readings into spirituality. Mere Christianity is said to be an excellent work. Are you still keeping track of our friends in the Carmelites? Are you still activie in the Carmelite lay order?

Duty calls. I must be off for now, I am

Your son

Ron

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