Sharing is Caring

Sharing is one of the basic inter-personal skills that most children are taught in kindergarten.  But it's more than just a nice thing to do.  Sharing saves money, resources, and energy, while helping to build community.  Sharing decreases our dependence on a fossil fuel-based economy.

  As we grow up we are also taught to value independence.  Our culture views financial independence as one of the goals of adulthood.   We are supposed to make a lot of money so that we don’t have to depend on anyone else.  Why would I undergo the shame of asking my neighbor for that proverbial cup of sugar when I can afford to get in my car, drive to the grocery store and buy my own sugar?  Yet I could also ask why would I use up gas to drive to the grocery store to spend money on sugar when I could just borrow some from my friendly neighbor right here?  I think that our culture needs to revisit that basic value we were taught in kindergarten.

Our CELL group practices sharing in many different ways.  Partly this is the built-in nature of the program, but it is also an important part of learning to live sustainably.  Some of the ways that we practice sharing are:

Meals:  We take turns cooking dinner for the whole group, and we eat lunch in the communal dining hall 5 times a week.  Our food is ordered together, much of it in bulk, which reduces packaging and transportation.

Vehicle: The 11 of us get around in one large diesel-powered van

 Living spaces

 Knowledge and skills

 Entertainment: Who needs TV when you live with 10 hilarious people who can’t stop laughing?

 Other stuff: books, knitting needles, clothing… It’s nice to know that someone has my back if I need to borrow a hat or a water bottle (both of which have happened to me)

 When this program is over, I want to continue practicing sharing and generosity.  I think a common block to sharing is that we don’t always trust people with our stuff.  (I know I get anxious when someone uses my favorite mug, for example.)  But I don’t want to live in a world where fear and mistrust is the norm.  I want to be part of a community based on trust that shares freely with one another.  So here is a list of ways to start building community and saving resources:

Cook with friends, family, or neighbors

Grow a garden and give away any excess produce

Use the library for books, movies, music, and find out what other resources it might have

Share the use of washers, dryers, lawn mowers, power tools, etc.

Carpool…share cars, bicycles, scooters, whatever you have

Share your skills and ask others to share their skills with you

Give things away that you are done with: clothing, books, toys, furniture…

Offer to baby-sit, pet-sit, house-sit, plant-sit, etc.

An essay we read by Charles Eisenstein talks about gift circles.  The idea is to get together with 10-20 people to give and receive gifts.  First everyone names something that they need or want, and the group offers suggestion for how to meet that need.  Then everyone names something that they want to give.  It could be skills, labor hours, rides, use of tools or appliances, or items to give away.  I like this idea because it's practical and also a great excuse to get together with people.  I think that physical and online message boards (like Craigslist or a bulletin board in a community space) are a great way to get started sharing resources, but actually getting together and holding a gift circle is a unique opportunity with numerous benefits.  With a gift circle, everyone gets to give something and everyone gets to receive something.

I think that with sharing, everybody wins.  Individuals save money by not having to buy one of everything.  Fewer resources are being drawn from the earth to manufacture more stuff.  Community members have a chance to get to know each other better.  Sharing is caring, and sharing is key to building a sustainable world.

The essay by Charles Eisenstein that inspired this post can be found here: http://www.realitysandwich.com/circle_gifts

-Sarah