Yes, they have to pay the bills and are part of the market economy, but with every commodity traded, they add something that cannot be commodified and which is therefore even more valuable.
Sometimes the best you can do is be a bit of both, realistically, it's the best you can do nowadays.
After all, what we crave is not trickle-down, faceless profits, but reciprocal, face-to-face relationships, which are naturally abundant but made scarce by the anonymity of large-scale economics. We have the power to change that, to develop the local, reciprocal economies that serve community rather than undermine it.
As someone from a small town, this is incredibly true. I would much rather connect face-to-face than with some corporate monotone mess. With peoiple that are happy to chat rather than fear making the most pennies possible.
Now used for making pies and jam and cramming your mouth full
Delicious!
people could use a little goodness in their lives right now.
She sounds lovely, the kind of person that is an amazing friend.
we humans need to catch up.
There's a lot that humans are still trying to catch up to, it is still questionable if we ever will.
Fuchsia splats decorate the fence posts.
How vivid
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 of reciprocity.
As someone that loves to give/make gifts for my friends and family, this sounds lovely an I related very much.
Instead, he sent out an invitation to a feast, and soon the neighboring families were gathered around his fire, until every last morsel was consumed.
Sounds like my dad, always ready for a barbeque.
“economics is how we organize ourselves to sustain life and enhance its quality. It’s a way of considering how we provide for ourselves.”
Nice definition, definitly different from my econ teachers definition. This one feels much more connected to the rest of the world.
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.
It connects you to everthing, also I love the web imagery.
Gratitude and reciprocity are the currency of a gift economy, and they have the remarkable property of multiplying with every exchange, their energy concentrating as they pass from hand to hand, a truly renewable resource.
Very true, I really enjoy how this was worded.
bushes spangled with morsels of sweetness in a world that can be bitter.
And in many bushes, the sweet berries can be surrounded by harsh thorns, making the berries even more special to receive.
For me, the most important part of the word Bozakmin is “min,” the root for “berry.” It appears in our Potawatomi words for Blueberry, Strawberry, Raspberry, even Apple, Maize, and Wild Rice. The revelation in that word is a treasure for me, because it is also the root word for “gift.” In naming the plants who shower us with goodness, we recognize that these are gifts from our plant relatives, manifestations of their generosity, care, and creativity.
So cool to find out the history behind our words, the fact that they share that root is interesting. I wonder if that was a thoughtful connection or if it just randomly hasppened that way. Eitherway, thinking of the plants as gifts definitly would connect you more to them than just a random fruit from the store.
: wild, complex with a chemistry that your body recognizes as the real food it’s been waiting for.
This makes me feel like she is tatsing more than just the fruit, like she is tasting the history and past that comes along with the fruit.
a pure gift from the land
Ties gifts and berries together, a good metaphor for the berries.
as in this moment when we are both stuffing our mouths with berries and chortling with happiness.
Sounds delicous and enjoyable.