There are two kinds of gifts. The first is given without strings attached; no expectation of return, no mental ledger keeping. The second comes with more of an implicit contract, […]
Finance and Economy - Making Money - Social and Self-Help
Why Small Gifts Matter More Than Big Systems
Given the focus of my work over the last two years, I’ve been thinking a lot about how people relate to each other through the exchange of things. Not those […]
Finance and Economy - Making Money - Social and Self-Help
Why Buying Nothing Is Suddenly Cool Again
I’ve been watching this whole buy-nothing trend slip into the mainstream lately. It’s funny, in a way. We’ve somehow managed to make being broke fashionable. LOL. You can almost hear […]
Finance and Economy - Making Money - Social and Self-Help
Going Far Together
Someone once said: If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go with others. I really love this saying. It has encapsulated, in a […]
Health and Wellness - Making Money - Social and Self-Help
The Pit of Despair (And Why We Need to Stop Digging)
You know that feeling when you’ve tried so many times to fix something that you just… stop trying? When the effort itself feels pointless because nothing ever changes anyway? In […]
Finance and Economy - Health and Wellness - Making Money - Social and Self-Help
Remember When?
Remember when neighbors used to borrow cups of sugar? Not just when they were desperately out, but because borrowing and lending was just what people did. It was a way […]
Finance and Economy - Making Money - Social and Self-Help
The Commons Economy: A New Blueprint for Human-Centered Prosperity
The idea of a “commons economy” sounds a bit quaint, like something out of a Jane Austin novel; like an echo of old village greens and shared pastures where people […]
Finance and Economy - Making Money - Social and Self-Help
The Quiet Power of Associational Life
If you really want to understand what makes a community strong, you have to look between the cracks. Not at the institutions or the official programs or the polished strategic […]
Making Money - Social and Self-Help
Beat a Drum, Build a Tribe, Start a Movement
I recently watched a TED Talk where the speaker ended with a, to me, powerful line: “Beat a drum, build a tribe, start a movement.” I can’t stop thinking about it because […]
Finance and Economy - Making Money - Social and Self-Help
The Garden and the Machine
For most of modern history, our financial systems have behaved like machines; cold, efficient, and designed for extraction. They take from the earth, from labor, from communities, and call the […]