There's something magical about this book.. it's enchanting me. I didn't realize I was holding my breath just now, wow

Yes yes yes, this book is providing me with the language to discuss what I've always felt but never been able to put into words. I've never understood why so many people hold onto things that they don't need that other people could enjoy, which is frustrating because my family is still very affected by the mindsets that were passed down to them from the Great Depression, and so have always told me to hold onto everything that you can, never do anything for free, and not to spend unless you have to. Of course, I take no issue with the no-spending part since I'm very conscious about weighing need vs want and trying to get things via the most ethical route that I can afford. But the idea of keeping things I don't need and having to have a profit incentive at all time sickens me. Even when I was in high school and needed to do my mandatory volunteer hours, my family complained about "giving away your labour for free". And like, I get where they're coming from, but I cannot pretend to understand how they manage to equate doing charity work to profit my community as being on the same level as having a boss who makes you slave away for nothing. It's absurd, and something I've always clashed with them about. I've given away my childhood toys to kids who would enjoy playing with them, and I've even used the money that I received for christmas and own birthday before to buy videogames for my friends. It makes me happy to make them happy, and it really frustrates my family that I would choose to use my gift money to buy things for other people rather than on myself. But why? I don't want for anything. And if I do, it's usually clothes, since I wear things until they're threadbare (which some of them are already close to, since I thrift 90% of my clothes). The first time that I killed a deer, we had a family friend call up a family that they know and tell them that we had meat for them. They dropped by after I had collected the head and I left shortly after they began to carve into it. The next time I checked my trail cam, I saw that after I left they went as far as tracking the blood trail back to where I gutted it and sifted around for anything edible that I had left there, and in one picture I could clearly see one of them holding the heart. That really stuck with me, to see that they wouldn't let any part of the deer go to waste, and that it would last them all winter and probably even long after that. This book just makes me feel so seen... I feels good knowing I'm not the only one who feels this way after a lifetime of being told I'm foolish for being so willing to give.