The Gift Economy
One of the gifts I got for Christmas is the book The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Dr. Wall talks about how the abundance of serviceberries led her to reflect on societies that use a gift economy. In a gift economy, when a person (or plant) has an abundance of something it is freely shared with others as a gift, and that gift may be passed on to others. Many indigenous cultures used the Potlatch as a sign of wealth. You demonstrated how much you had not by saving it up for your own use but by giving it away. The serviceberry bears fruit which feeds birds or people or bears. They consume it and then spread it to others. That may help more serviceberries to grow as seeds are spread through animal droppings, or fertilized. The serviceberry takes the free gift of sunshine and water to produce its fruit.
I’ve been thinking about gift economies and how we practice them as a church. People put non-perishable food in our Little Free Pantry so that those who are hungry can take it and eat. We don’t require money in a transactional manner like going to the grocery store. We simply trust that the food taken goes to those who are hungry. We put books or magazines in our Little Free Library in the same way. In the summer we host Food Bank Fresh to share food with those in need. Most of it comes from Clark County Food Bank, but some of us who have extra garden produce bring it to share at that event. The rummage sales is transactional in that we sell for money the items you donate. It has a sense of a gift economy in that items are sold at a reduced price from what you’d pay in the store and those who donate items do so freely. Those who work at the sale give of their time, and sometimes a customer comes in with little or no money and we can usually pass on items.
Pastor Sue Ostrom