"The exchange relationships we choose determine whether we share them as a common gift or sell them as a private commodity. A great deal rests on that choice. For the greater part of human history, and in places in the world today, common resources were the rule. But some invented a different story, a social construct in which everything is a commodity to be bought and sold. The market economy story has spread like wildfire, with uneven results for human well-being and devastation for the natural world. But it is just a story we have told ourselves and we are free to tell another, to reclaim the old one. One of these stories sustains the living systems on which we depend. One of these stories opens the way to living in gratitude and amazement at the richness and generosity of the world. One of these stories asks us to bestow our own gifts in kind, to celebrate our kinship with the world. We can choose. If all the world is a commodity, how poor we grow. When all the world is a gift in motion, how wealthy we become."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Women authors from the United StatesEnvironmentalists from the United StatesNaturalists from the United StatesWomen scientists from the United StatesBotanists from the United States
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
p. 31
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robin_Wall_Kimmerer
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Related Quotes
"The plants are our oldest teachers."
"The earth is so richly endowed that the least we can do in return is to pay attention."
"A path scented with sweetgrass leads to a landscape of forgiveness and healing for all who need it."
"All powers have two sides, the power to create and the power to destroy. We must recognize them both, but invest our …"
"Maybe there is no such thing as time; there are only moments, each with its own story."
"Being naturalized to place means to live as if this is the land that feeds you, as if these are the streams from whic…"
"Paying attention acknowledges that we have something to learn from intelligences other than our own. Listening, stand…"
"One thing I’ve learned in the woods is that there is no such thing as random. Everything is steeped in meaning, color…"
"We are all complicit. We've allowed the "market" to define what we value so that the redefined common good seems to d…"
"The composer Aaron Copland got it right. An n spring is music for dancing. The woods dance with the colors of wildflo…"