Sharing is Caring

Although Malcolm McDowell is probably already writing about this as I type, I have been really interested in the concept of "sharing" lately. Not the way that children are taught how to share, but how we as human beings, old and young, can share our resources from our homes to our no-longer-needed resources (like extra bricks, discarded toys, etc.,) via sites such as Freecycle.com

When I was younger, and an aspiring hippie, I thought that it would be so cool to live in a commune with other people. As a child of a two-parent, one sibling family to live with a bunch of strangers from all walks of life seemed so exotic and cool.

Then I grew up and realized that I enjoy a little privacy, peace and quiet, and not staring at unrecognizable faces over the breakfast table, who had not been in the house when I went to bed. I did live in a semi-commune-like setting during my first year of grad school. It was an old 1920s-?, two story house that I shared with a revolving door of roommates- it was between two and five other girls on a given day. Plus two dogs and two cats, none of which were mine. It wasn't based on peace, love, and understanding- far from it and resource-sharing was a rare occasion. But it was "interesting."

A really cool example that didn't invoke personal frustration I found in an Amazon.com review of a book that does talk about this subject entitled What's Mine is Yours: the Rise of Collaborative Consumption by: Rachel Botsman by Kare Anderson from Sausalito, CA-

"One Saturday a friend who lives on Nob Hill in S.F. drove a zipcar over to visit me in Sausalito. He was eager to tell me about his trip to Istanbul, paid for by renting out his spare bedroom. Earlier that morning, via a freecycle posting, a stranger picked up some clay pots I'd set out by my garage so he could make a deck garden. Our apparently different actions are, in fact, part of a trend that Roos Rogers and Rachel Botsman dub collaborative consumption in their book, What's Mine is Yours."

And no Amazon (still!) doesn't give me a kickback every time I mention them. :(

The topic of sharing was also the focal point of an interview Planetizen (again, no kickbacks) conducted with a one Mr. Jay Walljasper

http://www.planetizen.com/node/48122

And for my pop culture reference of the day, house-swapping is one of the key plot devices in the Kate Winslet/Cameron Diaz/Jack Black/Jude Law movie, OK, chick-flick, the Holiday. Of course, as only Hollywood can, Kate Winslet lives in a charming English cottage and Cameron Diaz has a gorgeous home in the Hollywood Hills. But both are desperate for a chance of scenery and are more than happy to exchange one picturesque vista for another. And of course, find love in the process. But even Hollywood is clued in to resource sharing!

As the planet gets hotter and the economy continues to make a very slow recovery it will be interesting to see if we shift from "our greed is good" and "he who dies with the most toys wins" mentality to one based more on sharing and exchange. The days of borrowing a cup of sugar from a neighbor seem quaint at best, but who's to say that swapping houses could be the post-modern version? The future is unwritten.