October 26, 2009 - Harvest festivals abound this time of year. Horns-of-plenty filled with fruit appear out of nowhere, much like zucchini in Sawtown. In fact one of our more enterprising members has printed up bumper stickers that read, “Friends don’t give friends zucchini”. They are selling like hot cakes around town. You really need to live in Sawtown to understand how every spring forgetful gardeners plant that second and occasionally, third zucchini plant. Then comes September, while most of the garden has rotted because of yet another cold wet summer and lack of sunshine. Then in late September and early October there is usually a time of about 18 glorious days of sun. Kids are in school wondering why the good weather waited and overnight every squash plant has a 6 inch zucchini. The next day it is 12 inches long and by weeks end it is measured in kilotons. Then it is when gardeners make a mental note to only plant one zucchini plant next year.
It is that period of the calendar when you reap what you have sown.
In native culture it was the time of the “potlatch”. The potlatch was an event where social status for the year was determined by how many gifts, and how much food you could give away. The more lavish and large the gifts the higher your social status for the year. Incumbent in the ceremony was the understanding that at some later date the receiver of gifts was obliged to give the giver an equal volume of wealth however measured. Some gifts of greatest value were songs and stories.
A culture of “giving” even with a modest expectation of some return certainly did not fit into the capitalist culture of fur traders, pioneers, or gold miners. One report from a British agent to the Crown stated that these festivals went on for days and nothing was accomplished and considerable productivity and property was lost. Every time one of our employers proposes to take away another vacation day or holiday I remember that Crown agent and wonder if he is related to our current managers and HR professionals.
By the late 1880’s the governments of both Canada and the US banned the potlatch, although it survived underground for a number of years. The ban was lifted in the 1950’s but by then the tradition was so altered and the native populations so impoverished that for most the culture that made the potlatch what it was had been eroded. Many of our members, who frequent casinos, still hope that it may be restored and perhaps for three days the gaming halls will simply give away money. So far that has yet to happen.
The question that nags at the back of my brain is, what would happen to our own society if “giving” was a central portion of our culture and lives? Even if only for three days a year. It seems clear that one reason we are in the economic and environmental trouble that we are in as a nation and as a world is that “taking” is rewarded and “giving” is viewed as naïve, non-productive, and just down right silly. The banks and the market seemed to have not learned anything by the most recent crash and it appears they are seeking other bubbles to create, which will reward early entrants with untold sums of money and cost all others, even those who do not play these meaningless games with untold harm and misery. We take from our environment and we rarely give anything back to either the workers who created the wealth or the planet that made it all possible.
Without a culture of giving it becomes incumbent on the government to take the role to make sure that those with the least do not perish. Yet, the rich have been able to convince many, some of whom are our members, that taxing the rich is a bad thing. Why do we not understand that taxes on the rich are critical to ensure that some of the money that they stole is returned to its rightful owners, which are those of us who produced it? Why do we persist in our own beliefs that corporations are better guardians of wealth, the environment, or our own lives than we-the-people are? Perhaps the health care debate provides some insights. Despite overwhelming evidence that the majority of the American people want some form of health care reform, and that US health care is not working for most of our citizens, a handful of rich corporations including ones that provide coverage for many of our members, can buy political stalemate and bad public policy.
As long as we as a nation reward those who take: our jobs overseas, profits from our heath insurance payments, and fees and penalties when we borrow money just to pay the bills, we will not be the nation we remember or want to be. Rewarding initiative is one thing, allowing greed and avarice is something else completely.
Perhaps I have missed something? It is usually October when the markets crash and great wealth is destroyed. Perhaps for those who play on Wall Street the potlatch yet lives? After all, it is the season when you reap what you have sown.
