Living Life Together

It’s hard to imagine in our modern age here in America, what it’s like to live every aspect of life in a well-functioning, tight-knit community of multi-generational households — without government assistance or heavy commercial engagement. But people did it in years past.

Once upon a time the majority of Americans lived in the countryside, and they lived their lives together on the local level.

Of course, at that time everybody had to engage in some kind of manual labor and produce at least a minimal amount of their own food.

And property, knowledge, understanding & wisdom were often handed down from one generation to the next, providing each generation thereafter a leg up.

And given the limitations on transportation and travel, people had to rely on one another to meet their daily needs. Therefore, they had to figure out how to get along with one another and cooperate.

This way of living worked.

People constructed & repaired their own housing & sundry structures, made & mended the bulk of their own clothes, dug & maintained their own wells, cared for their own loved ones & livestock, produced & consumed the bulk of their own food, and properly managed their own waste — all in the company of those who appreciated where their shelter, clothing, water and food came from and the work it took to obtain, build, grow, maintain and preserve it.

And they learned from one another and ultimately grew in wisdom & strength.

It was satisfying work, enriching even, when people came together with the desire & will to live, love, share and learn. And I believe they found enjoyment in their lives and in each other’s company.

This is the way of life we want to live.

I’m not talking about a commune because we believe private ownership is needed and people ought to be free to live as they choose without taking from or harming another.

I’m talking about a community of people who live in close proximity to one another — people, who are committed to taking personal responsibility for their own lives and the lives of their own family and cooperating voluntarily with their fellow man.

But I believe, based on my personal experience, for this to happen, people need to need one another in order to live — and that need must go beyond spiritual (emotional & mental) aid and support. It must include physical engagement.

For many people to have that kind of life, it requires them to move from where they are currently living.

And it requires a change in lifestyle. A change from simply plugging into an economic system that provides everything for you to participating in an ecological system where everyone is responsible for providing for themselves.

And I daresay, for many, that change would be drastic. It would likely be unfamiliar, uncomfortable, inconvenient & hard. But I believe it is necessary in order to live out one’s days in good health, freedom, prosperity & peace. Because the writing is on the wall.

The current way of life that most of us are living today in America is failing, and it is clearly leading us towards poor health (even death), financial enslavement, lack and unrest, and it’s not going to just magically (or miraculously) change for the better on its own (or even with the help of a political overhaul).

So, we, as a family of five are striving to not simply take care of ourselves & our own but to also develop our own micro-community on our private homestead and a sort of ecovillage prototype within our borders, with the hope of being a part of a greater localized ecovillage community in the future.

WiggleCulture.com is where we share what we’re doing in general to achieve that aim and why.

If you would like to be a part of what we’re doing at the local level in or around Fluvanna County, Virginia, please consider how you can work &/or exchange with us. And if you’d like to experience what we’re doing within our borders, please consider our homestead work exchange offer.

You can learn more about us personally by reading some of our featured blog posts and/or watching one or more of our video channels. And if you’d like us to meet you, then please reach out to us and tell us who you are and how you came across our site. We’d love to hear from you!

[This page was last updated on 4/1/25.]