Sublime

The relationships created by the gift weave myriad relations between insects and microbes and root systems. The gift is multiplied with every giving, until it returns so rich and sweet that it burbles forth as the birdsong that wakes me in the morning.

Maybe it also reflects our relationships with each other. Maybe a grammar of animacy could lead us to whole new ways of living in the world, other species a sovereign people, a world with a democracy of species, not a tyranny of one—with moral responsibility to water and wolves, and with a legal system that recognizes the standing of other species.

The more he gives, the more he can take, and he goes the extra mile to give more than he takes.

We set ourselves up as arbiters of what is good when often our standards of goodness are driven by narrow interests, by what we want.

After

Because ecosystems tend toward diversity, and markets do the opposite.