Description

True Stories of an Aging Do-Gooder:

How cohousing can bridge cultural divides

by Alan O’Hashi

“Cohousing isn’t perfect. It’s antithetical to the American Way which suggests bigger is better than smaller; richer is better than poorer; acceptance is based on assimilation. Cohousers are sharers, collaborators and accept people for who they are. And at their best, they can make social change happen by bridging cultural divides.”

True Stories of an Aging Do-Gooder explores why cohousing can evolve from a social movement into a social norm. This part memoir / part how-to manual offers a paradigm shift about how we perceive and relate to one another. The stories are about relations between and among individual people, and the personal changes necessary to find commonality with strangers – all with different experiences and lifestyles. It provides “nuts-and-bolts” methods about ways your community can use cultural competency techniques to better understand one another and bridge connection.

About the Author:

Alan O’Hashi has lived a life of divergent experiences that converged when he joined the Silver Sage Village (SSV) senior cohousing community in Boulder, Colorado. His story about how to play well with others is “a somewhat organized stream of consciousness.” You can see more of his work at Boulder Community Media.

Explore more about cohousing through the lens of O’Hashi’s documentaries:
Aging Gratefully: A Film Series and Aging Gratefully: Covid-19, Catharsis, and Community