“That future can exist only when we understand the universe as composed of subjects to be communed with, not as objects to be exploited”
- Thomas Berry, The Great Work
Money isn’t the only currency. We understand other forms of capital. Social capital, for example, is valuable in exchange for belonging or influence. The most powerful and widely circulated currency on the planet, though, we pervasively dismiss and overlook. We even try to avoid it, avoid giving, receiving, and claiming it. We try to avoid needing it and participating in its economy. Even though, it’s the very currency that enables life. The currency of care is the greatest currency in the universe. It’s so valuable that it’s too expensive for a money-based economy - and so we rarely pay for it. However, in a culture that idolizes financial capital, this has led to us undervaluing care and forgetting how to use it as a medium of exchange. We struggle, now, to remember our mutuality.
Several weeks ago, in a group of future-tenders studying the way forward, we started creating a shared vision for the future. We all want something better more sustainable, and more peaceful- but what exactly does that entail? What does it look and feel like to be there? In each person’s vision, the future we were seeking had a guiding value of care. And, we acknowledged that making that care available now was largely cost prohibitively. Financial costs made care that might be given organically too expensive, and using a different medium of exchange requires practice. There are ways to bypass the financial systems, but these require our engagement in the very ways that we’ve been conditioned against. So much so, that sometimes we don’t even recognize the opportunities to share care that are available to us.
In the midst of this ongoing conversation about care, I was lucky enough to attend an ecology talk with Tom Wessels, acclaimed ecologist, professor, and author, at one of my favorite care currency exchange locations, Northern Bay Organics. During the talk, Tom Wessels mentioned something about Lichen that perfectly illustrated the economy of care. Specifically, the example gives us something to mirror as we practice remembering how to participate in the ecological economy. Lichen are complex life forms made possible through the partnership of two organisms, a fungus and an alga. Some lichen actually have two Cyanobacteria (algae) and a fungus. These two to three entities work in partnership, algae providing a mechanism for food to meet the needs of the fungus and fungus providing protection, resiliency, and expansion otherwise inaccessible to the algae alone. Together, they create a lifestyle that benefits them both. The fungus and algae partnered in lichen exchange sugar and minerals in reciprocity. But, that’s not all. Their relationship is not of benefit to only themselves. Together, through their relationship, they produce “extra” care that can be shared with their ecosystem. This could be through the redistribution of minerals absorbed from the air and then released into the soil when it rains; or, through the creation of habitat and nest-building materials while they patiently degrade rock into soil over centuries; or, with the protection of tree and rock surfaces from harsh weather. The algae and fungus that come together in the relationship of Lichen do so when resources are limited, and the most efficient method of survival is cooperation. By organizing themselves to share resources, they create conditions that benefit themselves so much that they become a benefit (care) to the whole world around them.
This is not a metaphor for how we as humans can better share resources. This is the reality of ecological economics. Money, and creating financial profit is a terrible waste of energy, skill, and resources. Actions that double alchemize efforts, energy, and resources into more sustenance are economical. According to Oxford Languages, economical is defined as giving a good value or service in relation to the amount of money, time, or effort spent. Most of us are not living economically. When resources run short, our cultural conditioning tells us to limit care and collect more financial capital to buy more resources. This pattern has undermined the very skills we need to organize sustainable systems, heal ourselves and Earth, and address the inter- conflicts of our times. It is inefficient because it is extractive in every context. As Tom Wessels explains in his talk The Ecology of Coevolved Species (New England Forests), mature ecosystems are energy efficient. The systems within the ecosystem have self-organized to use the least energy and provide the most benefit, to themselves, other systems, and the ecosystem as a whole. If they do not do this, something remains out of balance.
Humans are not naturally energy inefficient. For the majority of human history, humans have behaved like any other part of the ecosystem. Our enormous waste of resources as modern humans indicates something is out of balance. And, that something in our recent history changed. Darcia Narvaez, PhD., Professor of Psychology Emerita at the University of Notre Dame, says that what has changed is that we are missing our evolved nest.
“The evolved nest or evolved developmental niche (EDN) is the ecological system of care provided by families, teachers, and communities that align with the maturational schedule of the child, satiating the evolved needs of infants and children, allowing them to flourish and develop compassionate spiritualities. The EDN consists of soothing gestation and birth, on-request extensive breastfeeding and positive moving touch (no negative touch), a welcoming social climate, self-directed play with multiple aged mates, warmly responsive nurturing from mother and others, nature immersion and connection, and healing practices to repair miscommunication or hurts. Well-nested children and adults demonstrate social and moral flexibility, adapting to situations and others with emotional and spiritual intelligence. “ (Evolved Nest)
Over time, we have become accustomed to not having our evolved nest, however, we have not evolved to not need the support it provides. In place our our evolved nest culture of collective care, we have something else we organize around. The current mainstream culture that acts as a lymphatic system for the collective human body, and organizes our behaviors is not energy efficient. It does not cultivate wellbeing. This would indicate it is a rather new form of organization. One that we can adapt to mutuality within the collective human body and the body of creation.
We cannot adapt our culture without considering the environmental context. When there is an imbalance in our bodies or an ecosystem, it is best to support an environment that allows the organisms within the ecosystem to self-organize. Human culture, just like all other cultures, organizes around survival needs. The first most universal need is food. Northern Bay Organics and our small buyer’s collaborative, Constellation, are both offering an opportunity to practice more efficient methods of meeting our food needs. Both of these programs braid money, time, and energy that would have been spent inefficiently into efforts that have multifaceted benefits. By organizing together we can provide better food, for less energy spent, and in a way that supports individual bodies, community care, financial resources, and Earth. However, for most people this is a theory not an embodied understanding. We need to meet people's needs in a way that encourages them to practice. If we keep showing up together, we will develop relationship and build intimacy. These are the skilled behaviors required to organize more efficient and sustainable systems for ourselves and the whole of Earth.
Maxims to guide interdependence:
Wasting resources indicates an imbalance and a new or changing organizational system
When imbalance occurs, seek energy efficiency through cooperation
We align with oppressive systems when we don’t alchemize resources into more care
Oppressive systems lead to death (They overindulge without reciprocity, and eventually, they kill themselves through domination)
Mutualistic systems thrive
Everything evolves through cooperation
Care is valuable
Care is compound energy expenditure that compounds sustenance
Care braids resources efficiently and fosters more life.
Bibliography
Berry, Thomas. The Great Work: Our Way into the Future. Crown, 2000.
Nest, Evolved. “The Evolved Nest.” The Evolved Nest, n.d. https://evolvednest.org/nine-components-overview.
New England Forests. “Tom Wessels: The Ecology of Coevolved Species,” July 3, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCAvBmY7ZgA.
