Imagine an ornate door with a keyhole. If you kneel down outside the door, and press your eye to the keyhole, looking into the House of Wealth what you see may shock you: Indolence snoozing; Self-Esteem with a fit of the spleen; Wealth conspiring with Power; Philanthropy hugging Avarice while Cunning snaps photos for the media; Greed dropping crumbs to Servility. You might see a Think Tank Thinker, pockets stuffed with Philanthropic Cash writing alibis for the Owners. You might see Beauty in golden chains, and a Poet, dressed as a bird, singing sadly in a golden cage. You might see a Spaniel with a Press Badge in his mistress's lap. You might see a Judge in a blindfold. You might see a Cop dropping around to collect a tip.
If you were a Detective entering the House of Wealth, and pursuing your investigations, upstairs and downstairs, and then out into the public thoroughfare and back, and if you were to ask: "Who here is a giver?" What would you find? I would like to think that you would find that almost all are givers, great or small, from the lowest of the low to the highest and mightiest. We are all givers, great or small. One gives blood in return for nothing. Another gives a million dollars in return for an Ambassadorship. One gives tutoring for a child. Another gives a building, a park, or a museum. Some give mother's milk. Some give smoke from a smokestack or sewage from a pipe. Some give to get; others get to give.
We were givers before money was invented. And we will be givers after the Rapture when those of us left behind fight for the last scraps, pending our damnation. We were givers when we first told stories around the campfire, or sang the old songs passed along in our tribe. We are givers still as we listen to the branded content, and the political speeches, and the think tank fables and as we pass on the memes and soundbites, or stop as a friend to wise one another up. We are all givers and we are all receivers. We all give back, if only our own ashes to the earth and our tears to the sea. We are all relays and transmitters of a predominant culture and we can change it as it passes through us, each of us giving on a little better than we receive. We take air in and we give words out, for better or worse.
On Company Time we pass along what we are paid and managed to produce. On our own times as citizens we are responsible for what we give back and cannot blame those in charge, for we make the call. We can be just Consumers consumed by what we consume. Or, we can be givers and producers of gifts that have value beyond sale or purchase, beyond what in us has been bought and sold. We can give out of what resists and remembers and longs for something better. Patrimony is a word for it, as is tradition, or the holy spirit.
I blog giving, then, not only as a spectator with his eye to the keyhole in the House of Wealth and Power, but also because in giving is the beginning of social change. I have nothing against getting. Getting is like when the heart fills with blood on the diastolic stroke, but giving is how the heart empties on the systolic stroke. For the body politic, or the human being, to remain healthy the giving and the getting have to balance. So, I blog as my gift, just circulating what goes out and around and comes back.
If you read this passively, as you would consume news, advertising, factoids, entertainment, please don't bother me and I won't bother you. If you are reading restlessly, looking to make connections, seeking your own way forward, seeking to contribute, seeking the missing pieces you need to make progress, please drop me a note, add a comment, link from our own blog, or look into the organizations discussed here. However you do it, get engaged. Tell me in the comment section that I am full of malarkey. (A true observation.) Then show a better way. But, please, get active and give in your own way.
