”I continued, ‘We have, at most, six hours left before this transport will dock. After that, you can do whatever you want to each other.’ That didn’t work, they still had to tell me about what had caused the latest fight.”

I love that we open again on Murderbot babysitting a new bunch of idiot humans who are fighting like rowdy toddlers, pulling them apart and going, “I swear to god I will turn this transport around!” Poor Murderbot. Being human is hard, even if you’re just pretending.

LEGITIMATELY SCREAMED IN MY CAR EVEN THOUGH I KNEW IT WAS COMING AGHHHHHHHHHH

I like what she's getting at, but I feel like at this point, she's saying the same thing in twenty different ways. This might be because I'm not used to reading extended essays like this - I've read a decent amount of memoirs and other nonfiction, but this is different for me. I do find her writing beautiful however.

It.

Is.

So.

Slow.

(If it weren't for doing something physically while listening to the audio, I fear I may have dnf'd already. 🙃)

I’d love to hear if anyone has examples of gift economies in their community! (Or has ideas of how they want to put this in practice)

Lovinggg this book so far- I feel it’s putting into words how I’ve been wishing our society functioned, and is bringing attention to this idea that can create strong communities at a time when new generations (including my own) are feeling the lack of community (and loss of community spaces, which have largely been replaced by social media). And it feels like something we can actually do in our communities!

This point in the book (I’m doing the audiobook read by her- HIGHLY recommend btw) is causing me reflect on how grateful I am for the little moments of a “gift economy” I got to experience in the neighborhood I recently moved out of. We had little free libraries everywhere, multiple community gardens, and I lived next to a college campus that had an herb garden we took from frequently (it was a small thing, but it saved us money and a fresh herb really can make a great difference to a meal!). It’s making me hope the next place I end up up will have things like this, or the opportunity to establish things like this!

"My lived experience is based in rural landscapes, and I'm embarrassingly aware of my limited perspective on where else gift economies might live side by side with the market. I lecture at college campuses all over the country, so I routinely ask students if and how they participate in gifting networks" (p. 45)

one thing I'm loving about this book is how full of curiosity it is. Kimmerer is constantly asking the reader "what if" questions, and in this section on grassroots mutual aid networks she admits a blind spot in her own knowledge. it really adds to the overall warmth and community-building energy this book exudes.