Say “No” to the Six Stories – of Domination, Revolution, Isolation, Purification, Victimization and Accumulation. “Yes” to the Seventh Story of openheartedness.
Read Cory and the Seventh Story: A Children’s Book for Adults – Penguin Random House
Household Economies
The Six Story Reality – Consumption choices may lead us to a treadmill of high expenses, stressful work, and an inability to express our core values. We may trade wonderful time with family and friends — and simply being — for unnecessary things. We may move so quickly that we fail to use our values to guide our purchases and investments.
Analysis – By examining household patterns of consumption and work it is possible to shift them towards alignment with core values. Dollars spent can be carefully calibrated against the time and stress incurred in earning them. It is possible to reclaim a sense of peace, of expansiveness, and of connection to the whole that is grounded in the awareness with which money, time, and resources flow through our lives.
It is helpful to recognize that we participate in three different human economic networks: the gift economy, the complementary economy, and the formal economy. The gift economy is characterized by spontaneous acts of love, nurturing, friendship, celebration, prayer, and beauty and play that circulate freely. The complementary economy includes local currencies and trading systems. The conventional economy includes all transactions made in national currencies. It ranges from small-scale businesses to vast corporations.
As scale increases, accountability decreases. Thus, the very freedom that money gives us — to travel, to avoid personal involvement in transactions, to purchase an unimaginable range of goods and services — carries with it the attendant costs of abstraction. We may begin to unconsciously support a wide range of potentially destructive activities.
If we are considering a purchase, we may ask ourselves: Do I really need this thing or service? Is it worth the life energy I must expend to buy it? A sustainable approach to consumption suggests that we embrace the non-monetized economy, which provides a rich source of meaning and community. We can also nurture creative forms of exchange with community members and organizations in the complementary economy. Within the conventional economy, we can support green businesses with a demonstrated commitment to social justice and ecological responsibility. Such enterprises typically employ product labeling to document their practices. Understanding the full range of options for fulfilling our needs and enhancing our quality of life gives us greater precision in our consumption choices.
Household economies build local assets by avoiding unnecessary consumption, saving effectively, and pursuing ownership strategies. These assets provide a buffer against difficult times and can provide seed capital for new enterprises or career shifts. They can provide increasing levels of financial independence over time. Ultimately, household economies help stabilize and anchor local economies and allow capital to be held much more broadly and equitably.
The Seventh Story Choice – Regain a balance between time, money, and work. Let social and ecological values guide purchases and investments. Generate more discretionary time, and a greater quality of life, by making more discerning consumption choices. Build household assets over time.
Say “No” to the Six Stories – of Domination, Revolution, Isolation, Purification, Victimization and Accumulation. “Yes” to the Seventh Story of openheartedness.
Read Cory and the Seventh Story: A Children’s Book for Adults – Penguin Random House
7TH STORY CASE STUDIES
EXAMPLES OF THIS PATTERN IN ACTION
- Home Gardens: Growing the Household Economy one Chicken, one Egg at a time
Perhaps the dream of resilient Household Economies across Spokane and the Inland Northwest needs a new verse to the song “One Man’s Hands” made famous by Pete Seeger and Alex Comfort back in the 60’s.One home garden can’t bring egg prices down
Two home gardens can’t bring egg prices down
But if two and two and fifty make a million
We’ll see that day come round
We’ll see that day come round.It is time for action. Time to speak the “no,” and enact the “yes.” Yes to what Bill Mollison calls the greatest change we need to make, “from consumption to production, even if on a small scale, in our own gardens.” He adds, “If only 10% of us do this, there is enough for everyone. Hence the futility of revolutionaries who have no gardens, who depend on the very system they attack, and who produce words and bullets, not food and shelter.”
In the face of the destructive centralized systems that only disempower the many for the benefit of the few, home and community gardens in Spokane and the Inland Northwest can begin to root local resilience in the home once again, one chicken, one egg at a time.
Now that would be something worth crowing about.
ORGANIZATIONS WHOSE WORK INCORPORATE THIS PATTERN:
Growing Neighbors – Our primary goal is healthy relationships (including with every member of the environment). Our primary means to that end is increasing access to healthy food. Our primary program is starting and expanding communally tended gardens that are hyper-localized, co-designed, organic, and regenerative. Our long-term vision is to see all local neighbors treating the whole community of creation more like family. We are cultivating an ecosystem where fresh expressions of healthy community can take root, grow, thrive, and multiply. Our practices will particularly increase food access, waste reduction, environmental care, and community development.