by Robin Wall Kimmerer
First sentence: “The cool breath of evening slips off the wooded hills, displacing the heat of the day, and with it come the birds, as eager for the cool as I am.”
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Release date: November 19, 2024
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Content: It’s small and thin, with illustrations, nothing super difficult, so even interested younger people could read it. It will be in the Science section of the bookstore.

In this slim book, Kimmerer reflects on the inherently service- and gift-oriented nature of, well, nature, and how humans can learn from that. It’s a simple thesis, but one that I think is inherently radical: if we gave up a market economy, where people are expected to earn and consume and live for the individual, and moved toward a more gift-based economy, where if you had enough you shared with others, regardless of what they did or did not have, the world would have to change.

My religious tradition espouses this, at least on paper, and so I was interested to read how Kimmerer approached it. She was very much “wow, wouldn’t this be a better way to live?” I kept thinking of the Bill McKibben books I’ve read, and how forthright and outspoken he is about the climate, culture, and how capitalism isn’t good for the earth. Contrast that with Kimmerer: she’s saying many of the same things but is much less, well, cranky about it. She is out there witnessing that she finds fulfillment in giving to others, and finds joy in the knowledge that others have received of her bounty. She lambasts those who take without care of those who have less – she tells a story about someone who stole the stand that the free farm food was on, and compares it to companies who take from the earth without thought or consequence. Perhaps her method is a better way of getting people to think about the costs of capitalism: she’s soothing, she’s kind, she’s reflective, and she’s out there reminding people that giving of your excess, rather than hoarding it, is in fact the way to a better, happier life.

This is one I’m going to buy and reread because it’s a good reminder of what’s good in life.