In thinking about the goal of bringing polytheist communities closer together, I thought it might be helpful to start discussing ways of assessing our existing communities and the potential changes we might encourage each other to make. Having quantifiable criteria can not only help us identify opportunities for improvement, but also help us recognize how much progress our traditions and communities have already made.
It also allows us to weigh the costs and benefits of future changes. For instance, Choice A might improve one category by two full grades, but Choice B could improve three categories each by about one grade. This is still a judgment call for the group, but having a measuring stick sometimes makes it easier to discuss something that is otherwise nebulous and ephemeral.
I don’t want to suggest that this is the only way of assessing our communities as villages. Rather, this is my attempt to lay out an example of a system in order to begin the discussion of what criteria we should be focused on and how to assess them.
I’m using a modified U.S. grading scale with a “neighborhood” style proximity being the assumed “optimal” distance between members. This obviously isn’t the ideal for all communities, but it provides a shared starting point for discussion.
For this article, I’m discussing the single criterion of proximity- the typical distance that separates members of the community. I’ve included some virtual values as well- these provide the ability to compare communities of various types.
Finally, I’d like to note that every one of us is a potential member of a dazzling array of possible communities. So my proximity to the polytheist leaders that Hearthingstone PLC is supposed to serve is an “F”; but, were I looking to join an Asatru fellowship, there’s one within “C” distance. On the other hand, were I a solitary devotee of indigenous Thai divinities, my community proximity would rate as “Z” or maybe “S” because I’m sure said faith exists elsewhere, but I have no idea how to find any practitioners.
Grades
Z – No Contact
This is the unfortunate reality of many polytheists. They don’t know any other polytheists personally, so they have no idea how near or far they are from anyone in their faith.
S – Some Online Contact
These polytheists are “ships in the night” online. They know that there are other members of their faith (or at least compatible polytheists worldviews) out there on the Internet, but they don’t know who they are and/or do not have regular discussions with them.
P – Passing Local Awareness
These polytheists have seen evidence that other members of their faith (or at least compatible polytheists worldviews) are occasionally present in their physical vicinity, but they have no means of contacting or locating those others.
O – Regular Online Contact
These polytheists communicate regularly with others of their faith (or at least compatible polytheists worldviews) via online tools. This could be social media, blogs, forums, or any other relatively stable system.
Importantly, most members of this community recognize at least some of the more regular members and have some method to reach out to them with questions or to request assistance. Therefore, this is the least proximal community that we would likely recognize as a “community”.
F – Far, Far Apart
The members of this community likely have regular online contact (“O”, above). However, many of them have met in person and many look for opportunities to meet other members in the future. It is likely that at least some members of the group also contact each other using “old school” means- postal mail, home visits, meals together when in-town, etc.
D – Day Trip
Visiting other members of this community requires committing most of a day. This means a drive longer than three hours each way. The actual distance this encompasses differs based on the area we’re talking about.
For example, I live in the Austin, Texas metro area, which is about 230 miles from Denton, TX. If I wanted to participate in a ritual with John Beckett at the Denton CUUPS, that’s a three-and-a-half hour trip under ideal circumstances. From experience, I know that driving to the northside of the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) metroplex is likely to take an hour or so longer than that.
On the other hand, on certain days/times, it could take almost that long to get from Plymouth, Massachusetts to Salem, MA- a distance of only about 50 miles.
C – Commutable
Most of the members of this community can reach each other in under an hour by car. Most will be closer, though some members might be further afield.
For example, a particular “pagan” social group in my area draws people from as far away as Lampassas, Killeen, and New Braunfels- each about an hour’s drive under ideal circumstances at highway speeds.
We could conceivably consider “C+” and “C-” grades for under half an hour and between one and two hours, respectively.
B – Bikable / Busable
At a “B” rating, most members can get together within a short bike or bus ride. If the members live along really good mass transit, this might be up to five or ten miles. However, in many areas this means no more than two or three miles – about fifteen minutes for a slow bicyclist or roughly an hour on foot.
We might consider “B+” and “B-” grades here as well.
“B+” would suggest distances under a mile (or very close to short transit rides), but still fairly spread out. For example, a community in a transit-heavy city like Boston might have a B+ proximity if its members all live within a “quick and easy” walk of a subway station, even though they dwell in different parts of the city.
“B-” means that cars are still pretty important to meet other members of the community. One could conceivably do it by bicycle or bus, but the effort and/or time involved would be discouraging to most. Here in Austin, there is a UU church that some local groups hold meetings at. It’s near a couple of bus lines, but our mass transit is pretty poor compared with a city like Boston or New York.
A – Adjacent
A community with an “A” proximity grade lives within easy walking distance of each other. There might be other members further afield, but the majority can conveniently stroll to the group’s central meeting place or to homes of other members should the need arise. In general, this probably means no more than a few hundred yards apart, though depending on the specific needs of the members, this might need to be much closer.
An “A+” grade would mean that not only are most members within easy walking distance of each other, but that other important services are located within the same radius- groceries, banking, etc.
An “A-” grade could be considered a community whose members could walk, but are still far enough apart that cars, bikes, or mass transit are still preferred. This would probably mean distances between a quarter-mile and half a mile, certainly under a kilometer. In the case of a community with a lot of special physical needs, even an “A+” might instead be an “A-” if services and other members are hard to reach for reasons other than distance.
Summary
This is a preliminary stab at a method of grading the proximity of members in a polytheist community versus an idealized “village”. There are entire fields of study devoted to these kinds of questions for municipalities and regions- my brother works on city planning in California, for instance. There are all sorts of advanced tools available, but they’re probably too detailed for our needs. My hope is that we can arrive at a general system of guidelines that are granular enough to aid planning and assessment while being readily adaptable to the needs of a given community as it moves towards becoming a polytheist village.
-In Deos Confidimus
You must be logged in to post a comment.