Angels, and Beggars

Ahh but we have such big dreams at Exogeny Network...dreams of things to come, and we've worked very hard in the past year as we have struggled to make Exogeny a reality. I know the "we" in Exogeny is somewhat mysterious, but that's okay, its a labor of love of a small group of people who have contributed untold hours of time, funds, and goods to make it this far.

Even with that, we have been somewhat arrogant, always certain we can do everything ourselves, that we can be everything we dream of on schedule and without any of the "speed bumps" of life.

I guess sometimes the Fates feel a need to spank the arrogance right out of us.

Its at this point that I am forced to make a confession, as well as tell you more about the dream. Since I am a firm believer in eating dessert first in our uncertain world, I will start with the dream.

The dream is the creation of the Exogeny Center. The Exogeny Center would be many things, but mostly a place to bring many voices together to fuel many dreams into reality. It would be a place where families could come and spend a summer vacation living in a microhouse. It would be a place where students could come to explore greener living and a kinder way of living. It would be self sustaining through its truck gardening, handcrafted goods, and other commercial endeavors that could work hand in hand with the greener way of life. It would be a place where skills dangerously close to being "lost" could be preserved and taught to another generation.

Just like the original family farm was a diverse operation, never putting their entire livelihood into one facet of the farm, the Exogeny Center would practice diversification and encourage experimentation to find better ways to accomplish tasks and find sustainable balance.

Its a huge dream, without even a square inch of land to start on, but the land isn't the real starting point of making this dream come true. The first step is accepting that we must do things properly and legally, by incorporating Exogeny as a non profit corporation and filing for 501(c)(3) status with the IRS. That will run roughly $1000, a sum we cannot come up with right now, no matter how we slice the financial pie. Some of the founders of Exogeny have been out of work all or part of the past year, and simply don't have disposable income sufficient to fund that effort, along with maintaining our current obligations. Even so, Exogeny needs to grow up, moving past the informal cluster of people who gave it life and becoming something that brings new life to many people.

So now we are beggars, searching for an angel to help us.

I guess we'll be more humble about our dream now, won't we?

But, are you our angel?