We Are The Solution in Our Communities

Many people want to look toward government for solutions to our economic problems. The truth is, if we really became a community then we can be the solution.

Last year I purchased a six color screen printing setup, for the hope that some day I will start a screen printing business. A friend of a friend was nice enough several months ago to offer to help me learn the ropes so to speak. He had been a screen printer before.

I had the equipment in my shed. I still hadn't built a place to set up as a screen printing shop. My friend said that this friend had been laid off of his job.

It just came together. I'm not using the equipment right now. This man has space in his garage. He had mentioned how he would love to get back into screen printing someday. I offered my equipment. After all, this man has a wife and children to take care of.

He happily accepted and picked up the equipment this morning.

There is no reason that people can't come together and help one another. We just have to re-capture the idea of community and what it means to love one another.

This isn't the only case like this. More and more there are pockets of people coming together recognizing that they are stronger together than they are individually. People like the Amish have realized it - that's why they can raise a barn in a day.

We have to move beyond the Ultimate Consumer attitude of collecting more and more goods and move toward the idea of a better life and lifestyle by sharing and helping each other.

When a big hit movie comes out on DVD, why do we all go buy one. Isn't that a waste. How often will we watch it. What if neighbors somehow came together and put together their own lending libraries so they could share the costs of movies. What about boats? Why do you go down the block in some neighborhoods and lots of people have ski boats, what if some form of fractional ownership was created. Wouldn't that be less expensive. You could have a reservation system so everyone could use it.

I don't know how this would work, but it seems saner to me than everyone buying stuff that they don't use that often.

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cindy47452/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0