A Giving Economy

“I store my extra meat in the belly of my brother.” 
~ Robin Wall Kimmerer, The Serviceberry

Beloved:
          When I asked the Lenten reading group for their favorite quotes, the line above was their uncontested favorite.  The woman who spoke most excitedly is also married to the man who called me a few weeks ago to ask about a family in our congregation with whom he might share a freezer full of meat he’d just bought from a nearby farmer.  Hearing I had strep throat, the mama in that family brought me chicken stew she’d made with some of the meat they received from the man who called me.  While Kimmerer’s quote comes from a story about a Brazilian hunter-gatherer community, it is no less at work among an ordinary faith community here and now.
          Kimmerer’s writing is beautiful — poetry, one person called it, a rarity on the subject of economics.  She contrasts standard capitalism with what she calls a giving economy, one based on abundance instead of scarcity, on the presumption that commodities belong to everyone, change hands according to who needs them most at any given time.  Relationships are the primary commodity in a giving economy, relationships rooted in mutuality, care for one another, and the assumption that we each thrive when we all thrive.
          By her own admission Kimmerer is not an economist.  Neither is she a poet like Wendell Berry, whose writing has a similar vibe.  She is an indigenous woman, a scientist, a botanist.  Insofar as her writing feels like poetry, I wonder if she is touching a longing in us we tried to name in our discussion, the longing to take leave of an economy and way of life driven by competition and consumption and more fully enter a more creative, contented and cooperative way of being?  We talked a long time about workplace expectations and the desire to spend more time and energy on soul-sustaining projects and passions.  A giving economy offers some relief from that frustration.  Even our conversation was consoling, in the community we found around these issues.
          We have another discussion this coming Sunday afternoon, March 30th at 4 pm, and it’s not too late to pick up the book.  $20 and only 100 little pages.  You can read it in a sitting or listen to it on libbyapp.com, using your library card.
          I’m grateful for you all, for your interest and enthusiasm for such matters, especially these days.  I am grateful for your good care of one another, your generosity of time, energy and possessions.  You are the people of Jesus in this tiny spot of time and space.  As we continue our Lenten practice, I pray you are finding time for reflection and study, in whatever shape that takes for you.

~ peace & prayers,
pastor annette