Social Capital and The Service Exchange Economy: Blog 154

Good Morning!

Another day ..... another dollar? So what does that actually mean? Well according to Wiktionary  the definition is ...

An expression recognising a balance in life, normalcy, and routineness

Mmmm?  So I wonder why that's my opening thought this morning on the Terrace Cafe - gone the melancholy of the last few days to be replaced by the first day full time in Jasmine Street. Well I can hardly claim normalcy nor routineness, attractive as they might appear! Apart from the routine of a shower, a coffee and some blogging time I guess!  But the shift over the past few months in my life can hardly be called either of those. Yet actually the balance bit does resonate. Letting go requires an embrace of balance I think. Letting go of the things that no longer serve us. 

Tough to relinquish what is known without a guarantee that what is to come will be better. But maybe the way to achieve balance is indeed to choose what to let go and what to keep. I remember Tom Peters, the management guru said in one of his books - 

'If it ain't broke break it'. Sounds counter-intuitive perhaps - destructive even? Well I have to come clean and say its been a guiding principle for me. Not that I am a change junkie or anything - just a believer too in that other well known mantra '"If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got." Henry Ford (1863-1947), American founder of the Ford Motor Company

We tend to have a habit to sticking to what we know, defining a personal reality within often restrictive frameworks, and indeed when everything is clearly not working - what do we do? More often or not - we redouble our efforts, put our backs into doing precisely the same things! Nonsense really. But I guess that maybe the fear is that we don't know or have confidence in doing things otherwise. Or we are afraid to take the risk. There is a level of control freakery here - which of course often leads to the illusion that we can control the outcome. For me - change has been about intention. What is is that I want to achieve? and then simply taking the steps to manifest it - its a tricky balance of creating a compelling vision and also then a non-attachment to the goal. Maybe that's what the balance bit of the definition means for me.

So anyway - today I have just brought my 'previously cherished' £10 breadmaker into my JS studio - ready to begin the new daily routine (haha!) of making bread. My friend Ros, whose guest blog was published yesterday suggested that making bread was fitting in the Granary - she meant it metaphorically. I took her literally - the idea of the smell of yeast rising and new fresh bread appearing at the beginning of the day is simply something that people have always done. 

The difference maybe is that this is often restricted to the kitchen at home or indeed a bakery. I have a hunch though that the smell of baking bread will work for Jasmine Street as a real and metaphorical invitation to imagine. It feeds the body and the soul. The mechanics are beyond me just at the moment but I plan to read the instruction book a little later and get started. 

I have never been an earth mother so I imagine there will be some failures on the way - but that too is the nature of Jasmine Street. Not all ideas are good, but what they always do is lead to the next and the next until the right one presents itself.

And this brings me to the subject of this blog today. The nature of social capital and exchange. Its as old as the hills and deeply human. We love to exchange things, whether its gifts, knowledge or services. And examples of this type of community exchange have been plentiful over the past few weeks. 

Given that we are still madly fundraising for the ARKA Teatr visit - I have found a number of people willing to help me make it happen, effectively giving their time and imagination in return for sharing the journey maybe? We have had to find accommodation for our 20 Polish guests for a week in August. I was slightly exercised by this given that I have virtually no budget for it  - and then my friend Cameron Geddes (Local Councillor here in LBBD) sorted it out for me so that all 20 can stay at Butler Court for a fiver a night! Thanks Cameron! And we also have to feed them, so my friend Amari pitches up with the idea that she will cook and all I have to do is buy the ingredients! Wow - you see how people come together to make something happen - couldn't do it on my own.

Working in the office opposite my JS studio here at the Granary is a lovely woman - Aleya Chowdray. I only met her last week. She has great energy and commitment to creating a space here for well-being. So we have exchanged some time in my studio for her to see clients with a weekly massage for me! Got to be a winner eh? Had my first one last Friday. It was wonderful. No money exchanged - just each of us offering something to the other that they need. And today is my third exploratory session with Tim for the one-man show we are making together. Again another exchange - I want to direct a short piece and he wants to create a piece to hone his acting again. Perfect. 

My relationship here with Rooff is also one of these. I am paying a reduced rent for my studio, which otherwise I could not afford at this stage of the JS manifestation! In return I am working closely with Steve Drury to vision the Icehouse Cultural Quarter and to begin to implement it.

All of these things are indicators to me that we are on the right track  - that all it takes is a shared commitment to an idea to make it real. Of course we do need real hard cash too - and that comes in the form of commissions and income generation, the normal things. 

One of the things about community is its ability when its working well to foster such exchanges and reciprocity through which everyone gains. Its not a new thing - as so many stories in history tell us. Usually it takes an adverse set of circumstances to get people motivated to exchange in this way - Hurrican Katrina, the floods, 9/11, 7/7...... but how wonderful it is when we can just do this without such an impetus. 

So thanks to my wonderful collaborators who are enabling me to accelerate Jasmine Street much more quickly than I could have imagined, and certainly than I could have ever achieved by myself.

So first day in the office for me...... I wonder who will pitch up in my life today!

Have a good one yourselves - maybe even swap a service?