Originally published May 1, 2026 for our monthly Issue of Mindful Intelligence Advisor. Subscribe to get weekly issues.
By Paul Gordon Collier, Editor
“Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.” – Edmund Burke
“The best antidote I know for worry is work. The best cure for weariness is the challenge of helping someone who is even more tired. One of the great ironies of life is this: He or she who serves almost always benefits more than he or she who is served.” – Gordon B. Hinckley
Our Hope Exit Castle project has become our Hope Estates project. We started this project off attempting to build a working model of an extended family household running a Castle, a building that combines private residence with public service space.
While that is still our goal, we now have another property that could eventually become a similar type of space (Castle Space) and two other properties that are too small to become Hope Exit Castles. They could become satellites for future Castle builds.
In purchasing our church, we came to learn of a growing movement to convert churches to living space. What we did not see was any great effort to both preserve the church’s capacity to service the community through its space alone and create private space for the castle’s stewardship family.
Optimally, the extended family would have no less than 5 members and no more than 10. Ours might start around 6 or 7.
Churches remain a potential future opportunity for Hope Exit Castle plants, including in the communities where our small properties are located. What we learn through our Riqueday Castle project in Canton, PA will help us with future potential church to castle conversions.
Apartment buildings could also become future Hope Exit Castles. Our Harrisburg project will prepare us for such future potential Apartment building to castle conversions.
Hope Exit Castles are not exits from the controlling world, but rather exits from dependence on the controlling world. Yet they are also servants to the victims of that same controlling world. They are still connected to the controlling world through service to those it forgets.
Among our readers we are certain there are those who have perhaps more resources than we do to attempt something similar. If you decide to start, write to us at MIAMAILROOM@gmail.com, subject Hope Exit Castle. If you have already begun, or have built a successful model, write to us as well with the same subject, Hope Exit Castle.
Either my brother or I will write you back. We will hope to regularly communicate with you, to learn from you while you learn from us. Whatever is relevant to our readers that you’d freely share, we will share with them.
While we are looking primarily to convert what is to what might be, churches and apartment buildings to castles, we are also hoping to live long enough to break ground on our first experimental community of 10k people, where every space is designed and built from scratch.
The primary impediment to sustaining extended family structures is the capacity to provide for yourselves through your own actions a sustainably flourishing standard of living and the training that makes such an outcome possible.
Outside of very large cities, the capacity of a community to provide sustainably flourishing vocations to whole extended families decreases the smaller it gets. Even a city of 100,000 will have a hard time keeping extended families together for a few reasons.
One major reason is that the highest skilled will gravitate towards the few most wealthy corporations that can pay them. Generally, those positions are in cities like New York, NY, not Allentown, PA, and certainly not in Canton, PA.
We believe we have the technology, ESPECIALLY with AI, to create communities that can design, plan, create, and serve 80% of its FLOURISHING wants and needs and 95% of its essential needs with a population of 10,000 people.
If a community can do that, it can provide the kind of high-skilled vocation high-skilled people would need to feel fulfilled, at compensations that allow them and their immediate families to live flourishing lives.
The community would be 2-3 square miles, populated by extended family homes (15-20 people each), which would in turn have the capacity to meet 1/3 of its flourishing wants and needs and 80% of its essential needs.
We will share more ideas about this concept in our upcoming special publication, Hope Exit, scheduled to be released with our Quarterly issue on July 10, 2026. This is part of your subscription.
Back on solid ground, three of our four properties have updates to report. In our current home, we recently had a crisis with a broken lawn mower and broken washer. We have been able to replace our broken lawn mower with one that works a lot better than the last. As I am the one who mows, this has been a godsend for me.
Our broken washer has also been replaced, and that washer is significantly better than our last one. My wife primarily does our wash, while my daughter (who is going to college) does her own. For my wife and daughter, the washer does 3 times the amount in one load than the old one did, and in a little less time, with significantly less noise (our washer was very loud towards the end).
In both instances, brokenness led to more flourishing outcomes in the end, though the extra cost, in and of itself, is not sustainable. In our case, we can meet this need, thankfully.
The Riqueday Castle has had plastering done to patch up some holes. We’ve identified a leak in the roof that is affecting one of our window wells in the sanctuary. We are in the process of considering contractors for a bid on a new roof, and contractors for a new bathroom and laundry hookup.
Mowing season is back in action, so our unofficial caretaker, Anthony, is on the job once again.
We have been saving towards our property taxes (we have 3 that come to a total of around $7K) and are about ready to pay one of them (the $4K one) soon. We will be opening up a bank account in the name of Riqueday Castle; with myself, my wife, and my brother being the authorized users.
After we do this, we will start paying our Castle bills through that account. We can also then have a shared account to throw money in so we can build it up for needed future investments.
We have a mystery in our electric bill that saw a bit of an unexpected spike (not significant, but not unnoticeable either). So far, we haven’t figured out what the culprit is. We will see if it continues with the next bill.
We have procured donated furniture which I have not yet seen. Brother Bill and Anthony will be taking the furniture to the Castle where we will all decide what goes where, though a few pieces are specifically for Bill’s future living quarters.
In Harrisburg, Bill, Anthony, and one of Bill’s close friends, cleaned up the third-floor apartment. Anthony painted the front room. Bill ordered furniture for the apartment which has yet to be assembled. Bill has also ordered a new toilet to be installed in the bathroom.
After the apartment is livable, Bill will be able to make more trips to DC where more opportunities for clients are. I will go with him on some occasions, but not often. We are seeking more business to raise more funds for our Hope Estate project. If you need website marketing, design, or building, or reputation protection, or research, ping us at MIAMAILROOM@gmail.com, subject Business Query.
Had we not chosen to embark on this project, both my brother and I were in comfortable circumstances. The level of business we had was more than sufficient to sustain us at this comfortable level. Yet I would not trade that comfort (which I do sometimes miss) for the opportunity I have to contribute to human understanding through my success or failure.
Can we redesign our very home life to accommodate extended family living that serves the community as well? It is better for me to fail than to have lived in comfort never having tried to answer that question for myself when I had the resources to do so.
I say this to appeal to you, the reader, who might have such resources, to consider trying something similar yourself. If you choose to start, or if you’ve already started, or if you’re well into doing what we’re calling “Castle living,” let us know at MIAMAILROOM@gmail.com. It could be the start of a fruitful conversation for all.
