I made notes on Robin Wall Kimmerer's "The Serviceberry - An Economy of Gifts and Abundance", which was one of the first #books this year. But somehow never came around to make posts - perhaps because it did not feel right in the middle of winter.
Now, with the fall upon us, it seems the right time.
A biologist's and Native American's thoughts on economy - and alternatives and gifts. Hugely relevant but in a quiet way, one that makes you make small changes in everyday life.
1/7
Enumerating the gifts you've received creates a sense of abundance, the knowing that you already have what you need. Recognizing "enoughness" is a radical act in an economy that is always urging us to consume more.
-- Robin Wall Kimmerer "The Serviceberry"
2/7
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.
-- Robin Wall Kimmerer "The Serviceberry"
3/7
When I speak about reciprocity as a relationship, let me be clear. I don't mean bilateral exchange in which an obligation is incurred, and can then be discharged with a reciprocal "payment". I mean keeping the gift in motion, in a way that is open and diffuse, so that the gift does not accumulate and stagnate, but keeps moving [...].
-- Robin Wall Kimmerer "The Serviceberry"
4/7
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. [...] the economic unit is "we" rather than "I", as all flourishing is mutual.
-- Robin Wall Kimmerer "The Serviceberry"
5/7
What if scarcity is just a cultural construct, a fiction that fences us off from a better way of life?
-- Robin Wall Kimmerer "The Serviceberry"
6/7
I want to live in a society where the currency of exchange is gratitude and the infinitely renewable resource of kindness, which multiplies every time it is shared rather than depreciating with use.
-- Robin Wall Kimmerer "The Serviceberry"
7/7
Dr. Victoria Grinberg
Marcel