Umbilicaria: A handful of businesses on the Harbin property, The Harbin-family is what makes the place able to have businesses

Harbin ethnography:


... In many ways, mingling naked in the warm pool, and pool area, is an important metaphor for ownership at Harbin, where the 'shared vision' of Harbin as place is a kind of ownership.

While there are a handful of businesses on the Harbin property, in many ways, being part of this place, this Harbin-family is what makes the place able to have businesses. Here place, belonging, and vision, here in the sense of countercultural vision, inform business practices. These businesses include Heart Consciousness Church's hotel business, the Harbin Restaurant, the Harbin Market, the Blue Room Cafe, the School of Shiatsu and Massage, a Kombucha (vinegary drink) manufacturing business, three vending booths in the warmer months, which mostly sell silks, tie die and related, beautiful New Age goods. All of these businesses are 'places' at Harbin. There's also a Harbin hulu hoop business, which isn't place based. And there are Harbin workshops, some facilitated by Harbin residents, some by frequent floaters, and some by people less connected with Harbin. Looking at various bulletin boards at Harbin – a) in Fern community kitchen near the pools, b) outside the restaurant, c) near the Stammtisch in the Blue Room – have postings for both Harbin and outside-Harbin businesses. I think that the School of Shiatsu and Massage, the summer-time vendors of silks and tie die, and the year-round producer of Kombucha – have a rental relationship to Heart Consciousness Church, whereas the guest rooms, restaurant, Blue Room Cafe, Harbin Market are all part of Heart Consciousness Church's core business. Ishvara once told me in an interview (MacLeod, Scott Gordon K. 2008. Ishvara (Bob Hartley) - Harbin Hot Springs' Founder – Interview. April 8. Harbin Hot Springs, CA: Personal Interview 7:15) that he envisions Harbin as an open market place of ideas, and even of businesses, but when I began listing some of the businesses on property and suggested open-market possibilities, we didn't continue the line of conversation. All of the various bodyworkers at Harbin are on staff, and so are part of the HCC core business. So, Harbin as place with pools, and vision, welcomes people through its gate, and some stay, become part of the community, and a few develop their own businesses on Harbin property.

So, while Heart Consciousness Church's property, as places, has differential economic value, they are also all expressions of Harbin's vision, emerging since 1972, and thus their economic significance or potential doesn't play an important role in defining their future. ...







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Umbilicaria phaea Tuck.
Navel lichen

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(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2011/03/umbilicaria-handful-of-businesses-on.html - March 8, 2011)