Some thoughts on sharing

This is just a place-holder for an essay/article I plan to write!

I have found that I like to live simply, without much clutter around, and yet there is a considerable amount of stuff that I find useful... not things like TV (which doesn't interest me, or at least not enough to get one) nor even a hi-fi, but things like spanners, some books, and instruments for making my own music. And so, my house is far from empty, although it's not as laden with consumer goods as most in this country.

I find that I don't feel strongly possessive about most of the things I have in my house... I want them to be available to me, but I'm not bothered whether they're available exclusively to me -- I'm happy to lend them to, and share them with, people who I trust to return them in good order.

So I've had the idea that in the sort of community I'd really like to live in (which would be a kind of small village) there would be places for shared things (workshops, toolsheds, libraries).

John C. G. Sturdy

Last modified: Sun Jun 10 22:12:57 GMT Daylight Time 2007