Mai-Lin Cheng

TO: Comrades A. & E.
FROM: Comrade M.
DATE: The Unending Present

RE: Commune Task Audit Index

Dear Comrades:
This is a draft document of an index for our forthcoming Commune Guidebook. Please
note, responsibilities have not been assigned yet with one possible exception and will
be allocated via consensus. Some categories may be combined, as in “Meals, healthy”
and “Meals quick”; conceivably if all agree, we may economize with one category
“Meals, healthy and quick.” I suspect there will be vigorous debate on this move, for
example, what about “Meals, healthy and slow”? Persons responsible for each category
may need to convene committees or delegate. Some categories may be determined
moot after full discussion [c.f. “Unguents, Homeopathic, from Oregon Hippies”], while
some have been lifted from threads conducted via text. Please forgive the redundancies
and overlaps. Some bolded categories need further refinement. A note on
alphabetization: subcategories of the index generally may not be.

Archivist

Animal care & husbandry

Beyoncé
    Dreams about
    Contests involving imitations of
    Rewriting of lyrics of
    Transcriber of Insecure scenes in reference to
   
Child Care
Child care, school day weekdays
Child care, weekdays, non-school days
Child care, evening school days
Child care, evening weekends
Child care, evening holidays
Child care, on-call relief back up for when person on duty is incapacitated, either
physically or mentally, or pretends to be incapacitated
Child care, when no one will do it

Comic Relief
    Teller of knock-knock jokes
    Translator of German Joke-a-Day calendar into English
    Original limerick generator
    Historical limerick researcher
    Racist limerick eradicator
    Head of witty retorts department

Despair
    Strategies for coping with
        In oneself
        In one’s children
        In children of the commune
        In parents
        In grandparents
        In great-grandparents   
        In memories of those who have died
        In future memories of those who may arrive
        In parrots
        In parakeets
        In those threatening suicide
        In those joking about suicide
        In those listening to songs about suicide and/or reading novels about   
            suicide
        For those who take Sorrows of Young Werther as manual
        For those reading too much Hardy
        For those not reading enough Hardy
        For those thinking the world is getting better
        For those thinking the world has only 70 years left       

Dreams
    Reporting of one’s own
    Recorder of one’s own
    Patient listener to those of others
    Impatient listener to those of others
    Interpreter of others
    Determiner when content of requires referral to therapist
    Facilitator of communal

Edible Provisions
    Meals, healthy
Meals, holiday
    Secular Holidays
    Religious Holidays
    Committee to determine which is holiday is which
Meals, slow (*I feel confident Comrades R-- and S-- will self-nominate)
Meals, quick
Meals, healing
Snacks, healthy
non-healthy
artisanal
        vegan
        vegetarian
        non-dairy but not vegetarian or vegan
        meat-only
    Snacks, sweets
List of allowed sweet snacks to be provided at further date and only, per
advance discussion, by sixth-generation farm wife OR survivors of 1970s
carob-based cookies
    Vinegars
        Artisanal
        Balsamic
        Black
        Drinking
        Sherry
        Pilipino
        Wine
            White
            Red
        Industrial
            For cleaning
For serving to dinner guests who would not appreciate artisanal
vinegars

Elder Care

Entertainment, non-print

Fitness Program/Studio/Regime

Journals
    Keeping of
    Purchaser of multiples, to remain unwritten in
    Finder of short stories about
    Furtive reader of others

Judge, Judging, Judger
    For Resolving of internal disputes within oneself
    For Resolving of debates involving more than one party
    Silent, of others outside commune
    Silent, of those inside commune
    Vocal, mocking
    Vocal, oppositional
    Vocal, thoughtful

Liquor
    Apocalypse-era acquisition of

Mouse/mice abatement program

Mulling
    Trans-Atlantic relocation during pandemic, feasibility of

Paper goods procurement

Purchases   
    Essentials, non-edible
        Panic
        Non-Panic
    Essentials, edible
        Panic
        Non-Panic
        Extreme Panic
    Non-essentials, edible
    Non-essentials, non-edible
        Panic
one who refuses approval of   
one who adjudicates denials of    
        Non-panic

Reading Lists
    For children 0-10
    For youth 11-18
    For those transitioning to adulthood 19-50
    For those claiming “50 is the new 30”
    For when you want to laugh
    For when you want to cry
    For when you want to laugh and cry
    For when you want to cry, but not read about death
For when you want to laugh, but not at life’s small ironic moments or a detective
with Tourette’s
For when forced to read non-fiction that is not a memoir
For syllabus-design
For travel research
For garden design
        Sourcing of Beneficial Insects for
        Edible horticulture of
                Heirloom
                Grains
                Strawberries
                Tomatoes
         Ornamental
                Flowers
                    That bring pleasure
                    That form a language
                    That bloom only at midnight
                    That are blue
                    That bloom in four seasons
                    That do not bloom
                    That are featured in mystery stories by
                        Agatha Christie
                        Dorothy Sayers
                        Patricia Highsmith
                        Walter Mosley
                        Lisa See
                        Henning Mankel
                        Robert van Gulik   
                        Rex Stout
                Shrubs
                    For shade
                    For protection
                        From deer
                        From vermin
                        From others

Repeaters
Of same conversations about racism for last 30 and next 70, until environment
    collapses

Self Care/Wellness
    Committee to rename as health   

Social Media [pending its continued existence]

Sustainable practices
    Merits of
        Hygienic
        Cosmetic
        Financial
    Challenges implementing
        Please see above, “Despair”
    Resistance to   
        Hygienic
        Cosmetic
        Financial

Technology

Time

Unguents   
    Homeopathic
        From German Apothekes
        From Oregon hippies
        From Maine back-to-landers
        From our own brand
        Non-toxic
        For face
        For lips
        For tired bodies
        For tired so(u)l(e)s