Cat Funeral, Our Council, and Chonk Update

We had a funeral for our cat Ellie tonight in therapy. TherapyGuru did an excellent job. He got several of us to come out and say something about Ellie. It’s one of the biggest spaces of co-consciousness I have ever been in. I’m drained and have a headache, but wow.

On a slightly different topic, one of the other things we’ve been thinking about since Ellie died is our council. For new readers, an elected three-member council leads T-E-C. We vote every fall for who will represent us for the following year. Medium-to-big decisions require an agreement of at least two council members, with major ones taking a unanimous three-member vote.

The council idea has served us well for the last thirty-some-odd years. But it’s showing its age. For one, we still use the same “districts” we used as a teen. Each district is allowed to elect one representative, and there are three districts, which reflect the three main subsystems that were there long ago. But we’re much more one happy family these days, and the districts don’t make as much sense.

Secondly, we have a lot better communication and co-consciousness these days. Thirty years ago, just getting two of us to agree to something could be difficult – we’d often have to write back and forth to each other, waiting for a reply each time. Trying to get everyone’s input was such a challenge we only managed it once a year! We chose a representative democracy because it allowed us to make decisions with minimum communication required. It was faster and more efficient than trying to coordinate a full vote for every decision, but it still required considering at least two perspectives. And, if you didn’t consider how things would affect your district, you got voted out the next year. 😉

I still don’t think we’re ready for a complete direct democracy; our communication and co-consciousness aren’t there yet. We need to be able to make decisions reasonably quickly. I’ll also be honest: if we go by the numbers, the middles and littles outnumber the adults, and I don’t think that will lead to the best decision-making.

I’d approve of having only one district and letting everyone vote for their top three candidates, as long as there is a deadline. Otherwise, we’ll be waiting for stragglers for potentially months, as some of T-E-C doesn’t surface very often.

Sharon wants to increase the council to 5 from 3. If we do that, I’d require that three of the five seats go to “adults” while two can go to folks of any age. Sharon, since you’re the one who brought this up, I’ll let you write up how it will work. Then, the current council will vote on it and see if it passes. And that, folks, is T-E-C democracy in action. <laugh>

In other news, our new cat, Mr. Strider von Chonk, is settling in. He’s such a gentleman he may become Lord Strider von Chonk – TBD, yes, a council vote is needed. “Chonk” was my contribution to his name. 🙂 He’s nine, orange and white, big boned, and just plain big period.  He’s been hanging out in the office closet, but is coming out more and more. 

It’s past bedtime. I’m going to sign off for the night. Goodnight!