Spartan Housing Cooperative Pine Press, 27 August 2021 facts. Because of him I know, like, a couple things about concrete. Without him, I would know nothing about concrete. I’ve been thinking about the Ship of Thesus a lot recently, a pretty classic thought experiment about identity over time. If the ships boards were replaced one by one until all the original wood had been stripped, is this still the same ship? Many “solutions” have been proposed, but there’s two opposite responses that I resonate with the most. First, that no identity holds over time. The ship ceased being the Ship of Thesus as soon as the first board was replaced. As a river does not have the same water, as I wake up the next day with millions of my cells replaced, we are fundamentally different beings from one moment to the next. The second solution says, fuck all that, we are whoever we say we are for as long as we say we are. The ship is the Ship as long as people say it is. I am me, you are you, the river is the river, as long as we believe it to be true. I think both answers are correct. Yes, there is no stagnant identity over time, but the identity we ascribe to something lasts as long as we wish it to. Our houses fundamentally change the moment a new person is added or lost. In fact, houses even change from day to day. The Bowie of January 2021 was fundamentally different than the Bowie of April 2021, even with no change in membership. But the Bowie of January 2021, the Bowie of January 1991, and the Bowie of January 2041 are all still Bowie. Until someone changes the name again to the Laura Les Memorial Cooperative. And it’s beautiful to know that I, as one of the countless members who have and will live in our rooms (until it’s condemned, because lets be honest), am both insignificant and central to the story of these walls. Just like everyone else I know and cherish. So when I sit transfixed on these murals, I don’t feel something that stems from pain, but I certainly feel in the presence of something greater than myself. The might of one person is no match for these walls, but I don’t feel powerless next to this force, I feel powerful. Because I’m not comparing my power to the coop, it’s one and the same. I draw my power from it, as all of us do. As I stare at the wall for 36 hours I don’t just experience power, I don’t just experience beauty, I don’t just experience oneness. I feel all of these in a swirling of emotions I can only describe as Sublime, which like the identities self-ascribed by people and communities, means whatever the fuck I want it to mean.
Corporate Secretary End of Term Report By Dale Kruithoff, 2020-2021 Corporate Secretary Well, my friends, here we are at the end of another year within the coops, and with that the end of my term as the SHC’s Corporate Secretary. I entered into this role amid a global pandemic having served on the Board of Directors for one year prior. After several long board meetings, three referendums, five elections/appointments, and a dozen intermittent operations reports, I am glad to have served the board and the membership in this capacity.
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