The Moneyless Man Read Online Free Page B

experiment, I would ask myself ‘what would I normally do?’ Take one of the most common questions: ‘If a friend wants to cook you dinner one night, would you accept or would you have to barter for it?’ This type of question eventually drives you a bit crazy. Of course I’m not going to barter with a friend who offers me dinner. In my pre-moneyless days, I would never have offered to pay my friend for the food on my plate; to do so would have gone against every societal norm I was brought up to believe in.
    There are some important points to clarify. First, if I offered the same friend dinner a couple of weeks later, or any other friend for that matter, they couldn’t refuse on the basis that they were worried I wouldn’t have enough food to survive for the week. That would not be a normal excuse. On top of that, if I ever felt people were inviting me to dinner more often than normal, out of concern for my wellbeing rather than just wanting to spend time together, then I would say ‘no’. Second, I intended to live off-grid for the year. Living ‘off-grid’ meant producing all my own energy for lighting, heating, cooking and communicating, and dealing with all my waste. However, that didn’t mean that if I were with a friend and they turned on a light or some music, I had to leave the room; that would be ridiculous. I had acquired a laptop computer and cell phone (for incoming calls only) from people who no longer wanted them; if I visited people far away from home and I needed to charge them, I would use theirelectricity, if there were no other option, as that is what I would have done in the past. Similarly, if someone came and stayed with me, then I’d offer them any solar energy I had produced. Third, I started the year with a normal amount of food and clothing. To throw everything out on Buy Nothing Eve and start again would go against everything my year was about.
    Receiving is very important, as it allows the giver the experience of being generous and kind. Without a receiver there can be no giver and being able to give is one of the greatest gifts bestowed on us. However, it was also vital to keep the integrity of my experiment intact in a very real and everyday way.
3. THE LAW OF PAY-IT-FORWARD
     
    I’d constructed this concept in my head long before a Hollywood movie of that title helped me articulate it. The movie is about a child whose teacher asks the class to come up with an idea that could change the world for the better. The boy suggests that if one person helped three people with something important, in the faith that each of them would go on and help another three, and so
ad infinitum
, then not only would a lot of caring, kindness and love spread exponentially around the globe, it would also eventually come back to benefit the original giver. Probably at precisely the moment that they needed it most.
    I have tried to use pay-it-forward economics to replace traditional bartering. It’s about giving and receiving freely. With traditional bartering, both parties agree a ‘price’ before any work is done; they then carry out what they have agreed until a full exchange has taken place. To me, this isn’t much different to money, though it has the benefit of being local and, more often than not, involves things that are important and mutually beneficial. It also creates a more real relationship. However, it lacks an essential spiritual quality: unconditional giving. Thereis something about unconditional giving that transforms relationships and builds bonds in a way that traditional bartering never could.
    When somebody does something for you just for the love of it, with no expectation of anything in return, it is very powerful, especially in the twenty-first century, when we are taught to look after ourselves before everything else. Pay-it-forward is all about unconditional giving. Nature works on this principle: the apple tree gives its fruit unconditionally, without asking for cash or a