The Serviceberry: An Economy of Abundance – Robin Wall Kimmerer
added by Jay Matthews and · updated 8mo ago
added by Jay Matthews and · updated 8mo ago
In a gift economy, wealth is understood as having enough to share, and the practice for dealing with abundance is to give it away. In fact, status is determined not by how much one accumulates, but by how much one gives away. The currency in a gift economy is relationship, which is expressed as gratitude, as interdependence and the ongoing cycles o
... See moreKate Smalley added 2y ago
Jay Matthews added 2y ago
Jay Matthews added 2y ago
Conceiving of something as a gift changes your relationship to it in a profound way, even though the physical makeup of the “thing” has not changed. A wooly knit hat that you purchase at the store will keep you warm regardless of its origin, but if it was hand knit by your favorite auntie, then you are in relationship to that “thing” in a very diff
... See moreKate Smalley added 2y ago
Jay Matthews added 2y ago
Jay Matthews added 2y ago
To name the world as gift is to feel one’s membership in the web of reciprocity. It makes you happy—and it makes you accountable.
Kate Smalley added 2y ago
Jay Matthews added 2y ago
Intentional communities of mutual self-reliance and reciprocity are the wave of the future, and their currency is sharing. The move toward a local food economy is not just about freshness and food miles and carbon footprints and soil organic matter. It is all of those things, but it’s also about the deeply human desire for connection, to be in reci
... See moreKate Smalley added 2y ago