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Generous Revolution

As many of you know I consider generousity, creativity and hospitality to be very subversive practices. They each imagine and transform our world of self interests into a shared spaces of possibility.

Theologically I think this Generous Revolution is based (at least for the Christians) in the counter cultural stance and teaching of Jesus. I am thinking of teachings like

“lose your life to gain it” (Mk 8:35);

“give to those who can not repay you”(Lk 6:34),

“Give to those that ask” (Mt 5:42-6:3);

“give to all who ask of you”, Go sell all you have and it to the poor” (Lk 18:22);

“When you have a party don’t invite your friends who can invite you in return… invite the homeless and the outcast”(Lk 14:12-14),;

“Zaccheaus the tax collector giving half his property away and repaying four times what he ripped off”(Lk 19:8),The early church sharing all they had (Acts 4:32-35);

The great socialist parable of the vineyard workers who all get paid the days wage no matter how long they work (Mt 20:1-16)…this ends with “what business is it of you if I want to be generous” Plus more - I’m sure.

A while ago I was hearing about the “gift” culture of traditional New Zealand and how it contrasts the “acquisition” culture of the consumer/capitalist world view.  (Hey Manu or Graham if want to unpack how this works…feel free to jump in.) Since then I have been wondering about Give Way signs. And how they could be played with to encourage thoughts about giving and generousity. Most of my current thoughts involve white stickers like name tags either blank or with a new letter. I’m pretty sure defacing a give way sign is not very legal. Please bear this in mind. The T-Shirt are however - legal.  …Culture jamming is fun.

Last term I was wearing my ‘give’ shirt to drop JJ at school. A conversation with a quick thinking kids went like this:
K: ”That shirt just says ‘Give’ not ‘Give Way’.”
me: “Yes”
K: “Well give me your money then!”
Me: “It is interesting that when you read the word ‘Give’ your first thought is to ‘Take’. Don’t you think?”
K “uh?”As many of you know I consider generousity, creativity and hospitality to be very subversive practices. They each imagine and transform our world of self interests into a shared spaces of possibility.

…. So hear are a few ideas.

and a this post as a discussion sheet generousrevolutionsheet

Most of my current thoughts involve white stickers like name tags either blank or with a new letter. I’m pretty sure defacing a give way sign is not very legal. Please bear this in mind. The moss graffiti “Give…the way covered by moss” may or may not grow on the sign and I imagine is harder to charge people with…. although it probably is illegal too. Again bear this in mind. here is the moss graffiti recipe and info

Ideas so far…

Give,
Give Away,
Give Pay (thought our work rights friends would like this one),
Give (green moss covering the way) Give ..life, nature, moss…. something green???

Any more ideas out there?

here are some put into pictures