From Davis

I would somewhat like to be at the PRAG reunion (or, at least talk to a few folks who will be around) but originally I was going to be in Zapata, Texas attempting world hang gliding records. The continual rains in south and east Texas sunk that plan. Then Belinda wanted to be in Seattle on her own without this husband who would have his own hard feelings so that she could have a good time. Seemed reasonable to me. The cost of an additional airline ticket at this late date was also a barrier.

Obviously, I don't have a great desire to appear at PRAG, at least for now, or I would have made the required effort. That does not mean that I don't wish all of you well, I do.

I must say that I am also not much interested in going to any of my college reunions either. I have similar unhappy feelings about my time at UCSC as I do at PRAG house (although, of course, there are good memories also). But I do appreciate your efforts to get folks together. Maybe I am just a grump.

Since leaving PRAG I have had a great time sharing community with folks around the world. Since then I have lived in much happier cooperative circumstances and found a much better (for me) balance between community and family. I now have a very small space over which Belinda and I have control without the interference of others. If we don't like what is going on (and after a while we didn't at Wallaby Ranch, for example), we can pick up and move on without much difficulty.

We are the fish in the ocean. The ocean is all those who live some place. We live in many places. We find community every where and stay in contact with (and work with) many people around the world without being any where for long.

I do not miss the winters in Seattle. We now have summer all year long. This is a big deal for me.

I feel that for me collective-communal living (in such a confined space as PRAG House) is only a qualified success. I spent thirty two years doing it at PRAG, so I guess it is somewhat successful, and obviously folks are continuing to do it there, so there are obviously good points (low cost). But it certainly didn't meet the goals that we originally had for it. We were obviously romantic and delusional.

Since I look back on my time at PRAG with some distaste it can not be counted as a successful choice that I made. Perhaps I will feel that way about my present circumstance in the future, but I doubt it. The level of extraneous and meaningless conflict in my life has been much reduced.

When I look back on what I accomplished in Seattle, my work at Ecotope (and those of the folks like Elizabeth, David, and Larry that I "worked" with) makes me proud. I have good feelings about that work and the group of dedicated individuals who did it. I'm not happy about President Reagan who gutted it. Those poor policies continue to this day with the consequences that we saw back then.

I send my apologies to Ellie Hoage and Elizabeth Coppinger for my bad behavior toward them. I'm happy to see that they are in good circumstances.

I send greetings to David Baylon and my appreciation to Frank Whitely (who originally found the house that became PRAG House, and who now lives in Greely, Colorado), Jeff Morris and Bill Kornblum. I'm quite sure that David and I would have had some interesting discussions if I had bothered to show up. I appreciate him writing to encourage me to come.

Congratulations on 35 years at PRAG House. I hope that the current residents appreciate the fact that they can live in good circumstances near downtown in a wealthy city. I avoid all cities whenever I can.

Love to you all.

Davis Straub
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Cloud 9, Iosco, MI, USA