Subject: Family and friends
Posted by: rayven80
Date: Dec 26 08
There was recently a news story about co-oping. They were discussing how to survive the bad economy by having friends and family exchanging services and goods to help each other out.
I thought that's what friends and family meant.
We've always done that. Does anyone else find it strange that this was brought up as a new thing?
Any opinions?
Posted by: rayven80
Date: Dec 26 08
There was recently a news story about co-oping. They were discussing how to survive the bad economy by having friends and family exchanging services and goods to help each other out.
I thought that's what friends and family meant.
We've always done that. Does anyone else find it strange that this was brought up as a new thing?
Any opinions?
15 replies. On page 1 of 1 pages. 1
talentedone 
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I'm with you, Rayven. I thought this is what friends and family did as part of normal life. A new idea? No. Perhaps someone wanted to think they discovered the idea. Interesting. Reply #1. Dec 26 08, 1:11 PM |
honeybee4
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That is nothing new to us. We have always shared our abundance , time, and knowledge with friends and family and they return the favors. Reply #2. Dec 26 08, 1:51 PM |
Dee30
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Yes, it is strange that some are just getting the word. But then some may not be affiliated with churches or communities where folks help one another to survive. I think smaller communities reach out to others in our areas not just at holiday time but throughout the year. Reply #3. Dec 26 08, 7:52 PM |
lesley153
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I've always thought it was a pretty normal way to live, and - for me - it has everything to do with individuals, and nothing to do with the structure of community or whatever religious groups or places of worship you're part of. If you're not made that way, no amount of religious indoctrination will make it so. Reply #4. Dec 27 08, 7:04 AM |
Jabberwok
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I agree with you, I've known some religious communities that were generous and compassionate to all. And I survived several years in a boarding school convent run by some of the most unpleasant specimens of humanity masquerading as nuns. Less to do with the labels and much more to do with the sort of people they were. Reply #5. Dec 27 08, 9:56 AM |
baldricksmum
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Is it perhaps more to do with not having the newest, biggest, shiniest and best, which is what most people seem to have strived for over the past several years? It's been a throw-away society with the good old card of never-pay getting untold numbers of people into debt and setting a terrible example to young people. If today's youngsters can accept that the bike they got for Christmas can be just as much fun whether it's cousin Tommy's outgrown one spruced up or the one from the toyshop window, and there's no longer any shame in recycling (unintentional dreadful pun, but I'll leave it), perhaps the next generation will have better standards. Reply #6. Dec 27 08, 10:50 AM |
Cymruambyth
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How very odd that someone should just have discovered that sharing one's resources is a positive way to counter shortages. Makes one wonder what that person thinks friendship is all about in the first place! Those of us who grew up during World War II and its aftermath learned that lesson early. Dee, it's not just smaller communities that reach out to others - I live in a city of about 700,000 and there's a lot of reaching out around herem both on a personal and on an anonymous basis. And Lesley, I agree that one's ability to show care and concern for others has nothing at all to do with one's religious faith and a great deal to do with the sort of person one is. We are shaped by our families and care and concern for others is a lesson learned in early, early childhood, before one is aware of any faith moelling. Jabberwok, I, too, was educated by nuns. There were one or two who missed the mark but the majority of the Sisters who schooled me were wonderful women and great examples of what it means to be kind and compassionate. Reply #7. Dec 28 08, 8:30 AM |
| Jabberwok
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My brother was educated by Benedictines, and I'd have traded schools in a flash. They were a wonderful, committed and supportive group. Likewise the Dominicans and Franciscan communities that I've known. Reply #8. Dec 28 08, 8:46 AM |
| Dee30
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Cym, I said in our area. The state of Arkansas is mostly rural areas. So that is what I know about locally. I realize that people all over the world reach out to others. But it starts with one and grows to millions of folks helping their neighbors. Love is like that. When one cares for people it just multiplies over and over again. For some people it has never started to grow. They are to selfish and don't look beyond themselves to help out. Reply #9. Dec 31 08, 11:52 AM |
| Cymruambyth
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Dee, I couldn't agree with you more! Loving people, people who sho compassion and care for others are found everywhere - in large and small communities, all over the world. And they are all ages, too. I volunteer with a local group that gathers and distributes surplus food to over 100 foodbanks in our city and its environs. The youngest volunteer is six, the oldest is 95. Our volunteers represent all faiths and creeds and some would classify themselves as atheists, all skin colours, all cultural heritages. It is not unusual to see the retired national Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada bishop and his wife bagging flour alongside the current Roman Catholic Archbishop, a paraplegic in his wheel chair who lives on a disability pension, a young aboriginal mom and her teenage daughter who live on social assistance, a retired university professor who is Jewish and the Imam of a local mosque. Love knows no boundaries. Reply #10. Dec 31 08, 12:58 PM |
blindcat78
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I'm also with you on this Rayven. I also thought that was what family & friends do. Reply #11. Oct 18 09, 9:18 PM |
tezza1551
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Interesting thread. Small communities have been doing this for years. Found the posts about religious orders very interesting - I had 5 years as a prisoner .. sorry, I mean boarder with the Sisters of Very Little Mercy aka Sisters of Mercy in the 1960s. We boarders supported each other, comforted each other, rejoiced together, cried together, with minimal emotional support from those who were supposed to be caring for us. Reply #12. Oct 19 09, 1:09 AM |
| skumma
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I seem to remember the LETS (Local exchange and trading system) operating in England about 10 years ago. People offered all sorts of sevices from baking cakes and babysitting to repairs and small building in exchange for service or goods. It took off in quite a big way but I'm not sure if it's still going now. It was useful in a community where people had no close family, low incomes etc. Reply #13. Oct 19 09, 1:20 AM |
jimbob55
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Living in a town of about 300, I guess we take this kind of lifestyle for granted. Unless someone trys to pack a fridge into the house at 3:00 a.m. he simply doesn't do it alone. If he has nothing to put in the fridge, he soon will. Reply #14. Oct 19 09, 6:41 AM |
Jazmee27
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Friends and family seem to mean differen things to different people. If someone'ss mad at someone else, if he or she was that person's friend, that could change from minute to minute--and the same goes for family. Reply #15. Mar 13 10, 5:56 PM |
15 replies. On page 1 of 1 pages. 1
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