This is brilliantly written! I do something similar. I grow microgreens and food for my neighbors and always give them the food in high-quality glass containers instead of a plastic bag, foil, or some cheap garbage. The container is always returned, usually with something else in it. And yes, we have each other over for dinner, watch each other's pets, plant gardens in each other's yards—and even share all manner of tools.
Brilliant Tanner. Embody the change we want to see. Start a change reaction. Care, kindness like laughter and smiles - all the good stuff I guess - prove to be remarkable contagious, which in itself is a great cause for hope in a better future for all…🙏
Thanks for the story Douglas. It’s a great reminder that we, each of us is creating and perpetuating the world - the way it is. We’re more than complicit in it. We are each actually cocreating it. Failure to question it, adjust it, redesign it and actively change our own lives for ourself - is not a neutral vote, it a vote for the status quo and all of the things about it that bug us.
For a few years I had the opportunity to teach principles - like the one your espousing - in post graduate level architecture school. We started referring to it as “inner architecture” - the architecture of people, place, relationships, dynamics, exchange, regeneration and positive change. Buildings and other artefacts, technology and infrastructure - including, as you say, the economy - are just props and supports for human needs. You’re right. They are there to serve humanity, not the other way around. Rather than just do things the way we always have - It’s time we learn to ask deeper questions
: what’s actually important to us? Why is that important? What’s the future we’d like to participate in? What can we do to create more of that in our lives right now? and, How might we engage with like hearted others and support them to live more intentionally as well. You’ve shown a couple of ways right here Douglas… including sharing your own reflections with us, and inspiring us to do the same. Bravo 🙌🙏
Great story and example how every action small or large changes everything. I enjoyed reading this as cultivating neighbourhood community is currently a challenge…trust is low and therefore so is resilience.
Yes Susan. Community grows in small imperfect steps they say. Hang in there. Every small step is a practice. We either have a win, or learn something new… 🙌♥️🙏
"Tools for Conviviality," by Ivan Illich. Has the same basic idea. I focus on setting up sustainable community alternatives instead of fighting the system.
That poor little old lady with her tanking stocks! Some of my best friends started out as neighbours. True story. Top tip, walk around the neighbourhood rather than driving all the time, & talk to people! You don't even need to borrow or gift, just engage in yarning
Great tip Rosie. Yep. I suspect I fall into your category… I’m definitely a “yarner”. We just sold a bushland acreage we’ve called home for quarter of century. We had 4 fire pit “yarning circles” scattered around the site. Each a haven of friendships, story telling, healing, and communion with nature and each other…
Great story I loved it! A big smile came on my face, thinking about Naples, in Italy,which is my hometown. Back there it is very common to start planning for a small birthday and to end finding yourself " stuck forever" in a comune of people you don’t even know why they are there but now they are your " since ever friends" ....eh vabbuó! 😁🥰
For me it is beatiful I love it and.. thanks for sharing!
We have a corded drill, so your thought experiments has been modified here. We have a garden, with two kinds of tomatoes, which we've shared with two neighbors, who in turn shared some bok choy and thai basil with us. And who know what that might lead to, as we've only been here a year...love your post. I want to live in a nation of block parties.
Dude, yes, borrow a drill, I agree with your point, the whole point and I try to live like that. but the fact that you think a $38 drill will work once, that you don’t have one and can’t imagine needing it again… you just start the whole story as a NOT credible person for living in the real world (that was my immediate reaction to paragraph 1). Although if that same person can BBQ for the whole block, kudos, that person has life skills . And I believe you are more embedded i reality than the “no drill guy”. Just saying I’d change the story up. What if you borrow a power washer? A snow blower?
I love this! I think this conversation is endlessly fascinating. Sovereignty of any kind is a worthwhile goal.
But one topic I’d really love to see explored further is Maintenance. Let me explain.
Say you borrow your neighbor’s drill. You don’t know the “right” way to use it, and you end up burning the motor out, stripping the chuck, or even just splattering paint on the handle. Now, what counts as “wrecking” is purely an opinion. You could say: “That’s how my father used a drill, so that’s how I’ll use a drill.” But your neighbor takes meticulous care of his tools, they’re his livelihood. Who pays for the maintenance then? And how willing will he be to lend you anything again?
Another example: you borrow the drill, treat it fine, and then lend it to your friend Tom down the road. Tom unknowingly damages it. You hand it back to your neighbor thinking it’s fine. Five days later, your neighbor pulls it out for a job and finds it broken. The repair costs $50 and five days’ delay, and he loses both the job and his reputation. Who bears that cost?
One last example: you borrow the drill, treat it like gold, and return it in perfect condition. But then your neighbor says: “Since you have Microsoft Office, can I borrow your laptop to do an inventory of my tools?” You agree, but writing is your livelihood, just as his tools are his. You return to find the laptop in his sawdust-filled garage, now filthy, and the “E” key no longer works. What do you do then? And even more, what do you do from that point forward?
My first instinct is: treat each person as if they were your child. Yes, they’ll make mistakes, but you teach them. But do you really have to teach everyone? How many computers (or drills) do you wreck in the process?
My second instinct: maybe everyone pitches in when something breaks. But what happens when you ask for help repairing the computer and the neighbors laugh: “I’d never treat a computer like that, nor would I let my kids. Why should I pay?”
In the end, the buck stops with you. If it’s your livelihood, you have no choice but to repair or replace it, no matter who caused the damage.
In this case: Maintenance isn’t just about keeping things going, it’s about preserving trust. When tools break and no one takes responsibility, the trust is broken faster than the drill. Which means the next thing you do is, choose carefully who you lend things to, because you cant maintain everyones character. You can only decide whose hands you trust. Which puts us right back into the same predicament we are in now.
These examples are small, but they add up. They don’t make me dismiss the idea of sharing, in fact far from it! I want this spirit to shape our world. But I am asking honestly: where do we draw the line? What do you and what does everyone on here think?
Doug, you are great. You not only have a fertile mind that sees way beyond the narrow boundaries of the current system; you also have a huge loving, inclusive heart. Thanks for painting a warm picture of where we need to go. Thank you.🙏
This is brilliantly written! I do something similar. I grow microgreens and food for my neighbors and always give them the food in high-quality glass containers instead of a plastic bag, foil, or some cheap garbage. The container is always returned, usually with something else in it. And yes, we have each other over for dinner, watch each other's pets, plant gardens in each other's yards—and even share all manner of tools.
Brilliant Tanner. Embody the change we want to see. Start a change reaction. Care, kindness like laughter and smiles - all the good stuff I guess - prove to be remarkable contagious, which in itself is a great cause for hope in a better future for all…🙏
Thanks for the story Douglas. It’s a great reminder that we, each of us is creating and perpetuating the world - the way it is. We’re more than complicit in it. We are each actually cocreating it. Failure to question it, adjust it, redesign it and actively change our own lives for ourself - is not a neutral vote, it a vote for the status quo and all of the things about it that bug us.
For a few years I had the opportunity to teach principles - like the one your espousing - in post graduate level architecture school. We started referring to it as “inner architecture” - the architecture of people, place, relationships, dynamics, exchange, regeneration and positive change. Buildings and other artefacts, technology and infrastructure - including, as you say, the economy - are just props and supports for human needs. You’re right. They are there to serve humanity, not the other way around. Rather than just do things the way we always have - It’s time we learn to ask deeper questions
: what’s actually important to us? Why is that important? What’s the future we’d like to participate in? What can we do to create more of that in our lives right now? and, How might we engage with like hearted others and support them to live more intentionally as well. You’ve shown a couple of ways right here Douglas… including sharing your own reflections with us, and inspiring us to do the same. Bravo 🙌🙏
Great story and example how every action small or large changes everything. I enjoyed reading this as cultivating neighbourhood community is currently a challenge…trust is low and therefore so is resilience.
Yes Susan. Community grows in small imperfect steps they say. Hang in there. Every small step is a practice. We either have a win, or learn something new… 🙌♥️🙏
This is true Peter, I am hanging in there, learning and appreciating them 💖
Excellent. Howdy neighbor.
"Tools for Conviviality," by Ivan Illich. Has the same basic idea. I focus on setting up sustainable community alternatives instead of fighting the system.
This is a great blog inspired by Illich's work: https://theconvivialsociety.substack.com
That poor little old lady with her tanking stocks! Some of my best friends started out as neighbours. True story. Top tip, walk around the neighbourhood rather than driving all the time, & talk to people! You don't even need to borrow or gift, just engage in yarning
Great tip Rosie. Yep. I suspect I fall into your category… I’m definitely a “yarner”. We just sold a bushland acreage we’ve called home for quarter of century. We had 4 fire pit “yarning circles” scattered around the site. Each a haven of friendships, story telling, healing, and communion with nature and each other…
Great story I loved it! A big smile came on my face, thinking about Naples, in Italy,which is my hometown. Back there it is very common to start planning for a small birthday and to end finding yourself " stuck forever" in a comune of people you don’t even know why they are there but now they are your " since ever friends" ....eh vabbuó! 😁🥰
For me it is beatiful I love it and.. thanks for sharing!
We have a corded drill, so your thought experiments has been modified here. We have a garden, with two kinds of tomatoes, which we've shared with two neighbors, who in turn shared some bok choy and thai basil with us. And who know what that might lead to, as we've only been here a year...love your post. I want to live in a nation of block parties.
Yes Leigh. Aren’t Creative Communities a joy once we experience them and begin participating in them!
Dude, yes, borrow a drill, I agree with your point, the whole point and I try to live like that. but the fact that you think a $38 drill will work once, that you don’t have one and can’t imagine needing it again… you just start the whole story as a NOT credible person for living in the real world (that was my immediate reaction to paragraph 1). Although if that same person can BBQ for the whole block, kudos, that person has life skills . And I believe you are more embedded i reality than the “no drill guy”. Just saying I’d change the story up. What if you borrow a power washer? A snow blower?
I love this! I think this conversation is endlessly fascinating. Sovereignty of any kind is a worthwhile goal.
But one topic I’d really love to see explored further is Maintenance. Let me explain.
Say you borrow your neighbor’s drill. You don’t know the “right” way to use it, and you end up burning the motor out, stripping the chuck, or even just splattering paint on the handle. Now, what counts as “wrecking” is purely an opinion. You could say: “That’s how my father used a drill, so that’s how I’ll use a drill.” But your neighbor takes meticulous care of his tools, they’re his livelihood. Who pays for the maintenance then? And how willing will he be to lend you anything again?
Another example: you borrow the drill, treat it fine, and then lend it to your friend Tom down the road. Tom unknowingly damages it. You hand it back to your neighbor thinking it’s fine. Five days later, your neighbor pulls it out for a job and finds it broken. The repair costs $50 and five days’ delay, and he loses both the job and his reputation. Who bears that cost?
One last example: you borrow the drill, treat it like gold, and return it in perfect condition. But then your neighbor says: “Since you have Microsoft Office, can I borrow your laptop to do an inventory of my tools?” You agree, but writing is your livelihood, just as his tools are his. You return to find the laptop in his sawdust-filled garage, now filthy, and the “E” key no longer works. What do you do then? And even more, what do you do from that point forward?
My first instinct is: treat each person as if they were your child. Yes, they’ll make mistakes, but you teach them. But do you really have to teach everyone? How many computers (or drills) do you wreck in the process?
My second instinct: maybe everyone pitches in when something breaks. But what happens when you ask for help repairing the computer and the neighbors laugh: “I’d never treat a computer like that, nor would I let my kids. Why should I pay?”
In the end, the buck stops with you. If it’s your livelihood, you have no choice but to repair or replace it, no matter who caused the damage.
In this case: Maintenance isn’t just about keeping things going, it’s about preserving trust. When tools break and no one takes responsibility, the trust is broken faster than the drill. Which means the next thing you do is, choose carefully who you lend things to, because you cant maintain everyones character. You can only decide whose hands you trust. Which puts us right back into the same predicament we are in now.
These examples are small, but they add up. They don’t make me dismiss the idea of sharing, in fact far from it! I want this spirit to shape our world. But I am asking honestly: where do we draw the line? What do you and what does everyone on here think?
Drop a pebble in the water... a small thing and yet the ripples can make big changes. Well done, Doug.
Doug, you are great. You not only have a fertile mind that sees way beyond the narrow boundaries of the current system; you also have a huge loving, inclusive heart. Thanks for painting a warm picture of where we need to go. Thank you.🙏
hi neighbor !