Obligations attached to gifts: mastery and payment!

Here is what a friend wrote  me : "I have always (as long as I can remember, that is) steered away from gifts. There has always been, for me, an obligation attached to it, which I wanted no part of. That consideration is present now, and was activated by your note in a previous letter re “what gifts will we be bringing” or something close to that."

I think his point resonates. Although throughout the western world people have begun to complain of the loss of community, we started to lose community when we moved to the opportunity in anonymous cities. There was something great about unburdening oneself from nosy neighbors and interfering relatives! My great hero, Bernard Lietaer reports that studies show what most creates community is neither genetic relatedness nor proximity, but the giving of gifts. Apparently the Japanese alone among developed nations do not report loss of community, and theirs is a society still awash in the exchange of small gifts.

What I'm just beginning to appreciate is the existence of a whole other level of gift, a level where one gives ones gift for the sake of giving what one has to give, for the self-expression, for the mastery of an art. That giving is free of obligation.

By all accounts, Pable Picasso was an able businessman and negotiator, who did well for himself financially. However, I'll bet he played the money game on an entirely separate game board from the game board where he played master painter. This whole thing is beginning to look to me like one of those trick pictures: a rabbit from one perspective, a duck from the other.

A guest contribution

 Dr. Donna Kuck, DVM wrote this April 9, 2011, about the GAA WORKSHOP AND THE NEW ECONOMY

The Global Abundance Alliance is offering a 1-day Workshop near the San Francisco Airport on May 23, 2011 – the Monday following the Conference for Global Transformation. Our Workshop presenter is the founder of Karma Clinic – a “pay-it-forward” medical clinic in Berkeley, CA. This topic – of living life through gifts and service (side by side with the fiat currency economy) is especially timely in light of events in the US and abroad over the last few months.

The bitter, ideological facedowns in our State and Federal Government have caused many of us to take a long, hard look at how we - and the rest of the country - conduct our business. We’ve had to look into our own hearts and ask what ARE our values? What are we willing to sacrifice, what are we willing to give? Where have we been blind, where have we been numb? What are we accountable for and who do we hold to account? What can we do at the local level that makes a difference at the national or global level? What have creative, resourceful people done during other times of upheaval and change – or when money is scarce?

Many of us have read Lewis Hyde’s book The Gift, or are aware of Bernard Lietaer’s work (The Future of Money), or have even been following Frances Griffiths’ Blogs on money and alternate currency . You may have even been on the GAA call with Nipun Mehta, founder of CharityFocus.org – which operates on the pay-it-forward philosophy. His Karma Kitchen in Berkeley, CA is famous. There are no prices on the menu. You are a guest. And – you are welcome to pay for someone else’s meal in the form of money, through service, or some other form of gift. The food is not “free.” It is a “gift.”

Our Workshop presenter, Aumatma Shah, ND is one of Nipun’s protégées. She regards healing as a gift, but it is not “free.” There is a powerful distinction here – which is part of the focus of our Workshop. How DOES one participate in a Gift-based exchange? It calls for us to step into a state of Gratitude, Trust, Surrender and Generosity. Dare I say LOVE? What would YOUR world, your community, your Promise - look like if all your interactions came out of this state of being? This is what we will explore!

The cost of the Workshop is $35 USD – to cover the costs of the space and food. The organizers and presenter freely give their services as a gift to you. But we advertise the cost as $35 plus GIFT. Part of our exploration will be what we mean by GIFT, and then it is up to you to create what GIFT means - to you. It could be monetary; it could be an object; it could be a service; it could be actions or ideas you take back to your own community. The important thing is that there is a flow of human interaction.

We are going to be continuing our discussion of economy and alternative currency in Blogs and emails to GAA members and through the Impossible Promise Keepers. It is a rich and timely conversation!

Right now, to-day

What can I do about big problems in the world? The trouble for this human being is, that I rarely see the results of what I do. I have big dreams and what look like small actions available to take every day! When I was about to check out of the grocery store with my big cart load of stuff this morning, I managed to notice that the woman behind me had a single thing in her hand, and of course I told her to go ahead. It's something most of us would do, if we notice! That's to say, it's an obvious easy thing to do if I notice. Sometimes I'm so deep in my head I'm not noticing.
Here is a great essay by Charles Eisenstein. It's part of the reading list Aumatma Shah suggests for the workshop we are putting on in San Francisco on May 23. There is one passage I like for today:

"... greed is a red herring, itself a symptom and not a cause of a deeper problem. To blame greed and to fight it by intensifying the program of self-control is to intensify the war against the self, which is just another expression of the war against nature and the war against the other that lies at the base of our civilization.....Community is closely linked to gift-giving; when anthropologists seek to understand a culture, they trace the flow of gifts." Read the whole thing!

Imagine a world like my neighbor hood

I have been imagining a world where our usual way  was to look around for what was needed, and just take that on, on a world wide scale.  We often do just that with our families,and in fact my neighborhood operates this way more and more.

My sewing machine just died, and Peggy said, "Oh, I bought an extra sewing machine at a yard sale: you can have it, there's nothing wrong with it, but I don't need another sewing machine really." Gail down the road planted parsley which reseeds, so she has parsley everywhere. She offered me as much as I could carry away, and it is great!  She is a master gardener, and often has cuttings of this, and slips of that. Mary across the street didn't want to go to an appointment by herself, so I drove her. From next door, Carrie often comes by to drop off bread or homemade candy. When her family, with many children, first came, we gave them a great big piano that we really didn't want any more, and all the men in the neighborhood got together to move it. Peggy is teaching their eldest daughter to sew, while Tami is teaching their youngest daughters to quilt.

I lived here for years without having much to do with my neighbors. We were on good terms, and we knew people's name, but we only got together once a year because we had to do something about the road, which we hold in common and have to maintain ourselves. Ever since Peggy and Tami, then Mary and I started quilting together once a week, something wonderful has happened. We trade fabric and ideas and have a wonderful time talking about everything under the sun! The additional gifting just seemed to happen of its own accord, but it really nurtures us all, and gets greater with time.