A Gift in Motion
“If all the world is a commodity, how poor we grow. When all the world is a gift in motion, how wealthy we become.”
A Question for You
I’m shifting course. In my last post, a podcast episode where I offered ten ideas for disrupting white supremacy, I said that this week I’d give you an even longer list of ideas! It’s true that once you get the hang of it and your imagination is primed, the possibilities are endless.
But instead, I want to focus on only one concept today. A question, actually:
How do you see your role in the natural world?
Allow Me to Present a Book Report
Robin Wall Kimmerer’s gorgeous collection of essays, titled Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, offers us Western-minded, patriarchy-soaked people a new orientation. Her stories are medicine for folks raised within the power game of American culture, with its winners and losers, prizes and penalties, and status rankings based on how much we are able to accumulate.
I’m going to share some snippets of Professor Kimmerer’s work. Then perhaps you’ll buy the book and let it clear your eyes and soothe your spirit the way it has mine. (And I’m only halfway through!) Consider purchasing from an Indigenous-owned or Black-owned bookshop in your area.
“The Three Sisters”
The Three Sisters is a traditional planting configuration where the cornstalk (the first sister) supports the twining bean plant (the second sister), both of whose roots are shaded by the horizontally creeping squash plant. (That’s me, the youngest of the three.) She writes,
“The way of the Three Sisters reminds me of one of the basic teachings of our people. The most important thing each of us can know is our unique gift and how to use it in the world. Individuality is cherished and nurtured because, in order for the whole to flourish, each of us has to be strong in who we are and carry our gifts with conviction, so they can be shared with others... In reciprocity, we fill our spirits as well as our bellies. ”
She talks a lot about human beings’ reciprocity with nature. Not having power over nature, nor being helpless, hapless, shameful destroyers of nature, but contributing as valued partners with the natural world, each one of us having our role.
I’m ready to practice listening to what the plants and animals, our equals, have to teach us, and doing my part.
“Allegiance to Gratitude”
In an essay called “Allegiance to Gratitude,” Kimmerer describes the way her neighbors in upstate New York, the people of the Onondaga Nation, open gatherings of any size for any occasion with a detailed statement of thanksgiving. School children also recite the Thanksgiving Address (or The Words That Come Before All Else) at the beginning and end of each week.
“Today we have gathered and when we look upon the faces around us we see that the cycles of life continue. We have been given the duty to live in balance and harmony with each other and all living things. So now let us bring our minds together as one as we give greetings and thanks to each other as People.
Now our minds are one.”
The address continues, sometimes in great length, other times abbreviated, acknowledging and speaking gratitude for Mother Earth, the trees, the food plants, the medicine plants and the people who carry knowledge of them, the waters, Brother Sun, Grandfather Thunder, Grandmother Moon, and all the rest of the land, sea, and sky elements, ending with the Great Creator Spirit.
Kimmerer ponders, as do I, how the quality of our days and our debates — take sessions of Congress, for example, or a business negotiation — would change if the first and highest priority were to collectively give thanks for the gifts of the natural world. If we paid more attention to our duty to live in balance and harmony with each other and all living things. “It reminds you every day that you have enough… it leads us to an outlook of contentment and respect for all Creation,” says a teacher at the Onondaga school.
Yes, how could it not?
I decided to integrate a version of the practice (Onondaga leaders are happy to have this idea spread, so feel free to adapt it for your use) into my morning rounds of sun salutations on the yoga mat. At each of the twelve positions, I now spend a few moments greeting various inhabitants and forces of the wide world and offering my thanks.
“The Gift of Strawberries”
Reflecting on our choice between sharing gifts of the land freely — wild strawberries and clean water, for example — or selling them as private property, Kimmerer has this to say:
“I remember lying on my back in the fields watching the clouds go by and rolling over to check the berries every few minutes. When I was young, I thought the change might happen that fast. Now I am old and I know that transformation is slow. The commodity economy has been here on Turtle Island for four hundred years, eating up the white strawberries and everything else. But people have grown weary of the sour taste in their mouths. A great longing is upon us, to live again in a world made of gifts. I can scent it coming like the fragrance of ripening strawberries rising on the breeze.”
Rebecca Solnit, another writer I admire, puts it more bluntly:
“What if we break down this capitalist monster that commodifies everyone and everything and sells us all down the river and alienates us? Because alienated, isolated, insecure people make such good consumers! Connected, grounded, rooted, soulful people make terrible consumers but great citizens.”
Fortunately for us, there are women and men in our midst who have eons of Indigenous wisdom to draw upon. And let’s not forget the rest of our partners in the land, sea, and sky, who speak their own languages. We just need reminders that they’re there to teach us.
I’m ready to practice listening to what the plants, animals, and people of the land have to teach us. I want to be a good citizen and a terrible consumer.
Become a Terrible Consumer With Me?
I can’t yet envision the shift from a commodity economy to a gift economy on a society-wide or worldwide scale, but we can still take small steps in our own little spheres. Since true wealth, as described in the quote up top, involves gifts in motion, we could start by examining our hoarding tendencies. (My hand is raised. 🙋🏽♀️)
Are there places where our objects, money, and even skills are stagnating, collecting dust when they could be circulating more freely?
What would reciprocity look like in action?
What small scale could you test it on?
I’d love to hear your ideas for generating the kind of wealth that includes all beings and leaves no one hungry. Email me or leave a comment below. Our world needs all the inspiration and positive action steps we can muster! 🌎🌍🌏
With love for you and all of our partners in the Universe,
Pam
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P.S. The free sets of slightly wonky “Corvid Nine Team” cards all got snapped up. 🙌🏽Thanks to you lovely blog-readers who included a donation, we raised $180 for Feeding America. ❤️ I’m working on getting another batch of cards printed, minus the wonkiness. Hope to have those in my shop by early spring. In the meantime, I’ve got other lovely greeting cards on offer here.
P.P.S. We wrapped up the first session of the Possibilities Lab this week! Identifying and making small, healthy shifts is what the Lab is all about, so if you’re feeling angsty or stuck, consider signing up for the next session, which begins on Monday, April 5th. Early-bird registration is open now through March 20th. Click here for info.
Want to make little personal shifts with less of a $$$ commitment? My book, Doodle Your Way Out of Stuckness: Imagination Lessons for Changing the World (and rearranging your furniture) is getting high marks from loads of early readers. I describe it as “whimsical yet meaty.” Comments I hear from reader-doodlers are “It’s funny!” and “You’re spot-on to where people are in their head” and “I could see this book being useful for a lot of different kinds of people.” Editor’s note: You don’t have to feel “stuck” to enjoy it. 😉Also, it’s priced to share. Click here to check it out. Considering a group read? Let’s talk about getting you a bulk shipment! #doodlevangelist