The Lost Art of Sharing

Spring is finally starting to manifest itself here in the Midwest as well as the snow melts away in the 40 degree weather and rain has been coming down washing a lot of the salt off the roads.  I absolutely love spring as there is a general feeling of renewing everywhere.  One of the things I have been thinking a lot about is the lost art of sharing.  As children are growing up, we encourage them to "share their toys" as it's the nice/right thing to do.  If little Jimmy hogs a toy (even his own) when a friend wants to use it, they are discouraged from their poor behavior and often an adult will step in to facilitate the sharing.  The irony for me is that adults rarely share!  We have lost a lot due to the fact that we have become an individualistic and selfish nation.  Once upon a time, an entire community would come together to build each other up.  They would hold a "barn raising" where everyone would bring their own tools and sacrifice their own labor, often for days at a time, to help a neighbor out (building things such as barns, houses, etc).  In turn, often the favor was reciprocated.  I was primarily raised in an apartment and held this fantasy of community and sharing in house dwelling.  When we finally did buy our own house I was shocked to find that people were so cold and closed to outsiders.  I held a "housewarming" party to try and meet my neighbors, so I could be actively involved in my community and only ONE person showed up!  Now I realize there may still be communities like I referenced above, but I think they are fading fast. If your lawn mower broke down, how likely would you be to petition a neighbor to borrow theirs?  Perhaps chipping in for gas and maintenance, and possibly even taking turns doing each others lawns?  Instead, people just take a trip to Sears or other store and buy a new one.  Similarly, every winter I see those that are out breaking their backs shoveling snow by hand where there are one or two freshly snowplowed driveways only steps away.  Now it is one thing to simply talk about things such as this and a completely other thing to DO something about it.  So, I decided that I would go through things that I owned and never used (such as muffin pans, tablecloths, etc) and posted a general "free" ad on my facebook wall.  I figured not only would I be decluttering my house, but there may be friends that were in need of the very items I was seeking to dispose of.  Low and behold, ALL of the items I listed people snatched up!  The awesome part of this is that often this lends to a snowballing effect - sort of a "pay-it-forward."  When those friends go through their closets to declutter, they will possibly think of doing something similar.  Plus, when I give these items away, it forces me to get together with people I may not have seen in awhile and helps keep communication between friends open and alive.  In the same way I think we need to be more open about asking for things when needed.  Pride is often what keeps us from doing this...when it is more of a blessing to give than to receive!  Often the other person is more than happy to share what is theirs, and are unaware of your need because you don't ask.  A great case in point is that I was able to borrow an infant attachment to my double stroller from a good friend that no longer needed hers.  This was a great blessing to me, as a new one would have cost $40.  The key is that the more we share, the less we buy - which saves us money, time (you have to work to make money!), and the environment is less impacted as less products will need to be produced to fulfill the needs of the community.

Also, a quick update: We did get the slow flow shower head I had previously mentioned installed this weekend.  It was actually this model: http://www.waterpikecoflow.com/VBE-453/ it came equipped with the option for navy showers, which I was quite impressed with!  It basically had a button to push that would lower the flow to conserve water while lathering.  Although I didn't use this feature, I liked that you could hardly tell it was slower flowing than the previous model.  The only downfall is it was somewhat cheaply made and after just four showers in our household, it was already in need of re tightening as it was leaking and spraying everywhere!  I suppose if I were to buy it myself (as this was a gift) I'd definitely recommend getting a model that was better built, as you tend to get what you pay for.  =)