toward sharing the wealth

Just got this post from Tryon Farm in Portland: one of my favorite communities out there. They've got a wonderful idea that puts fund-raising, fun, and community-making into the same continuing action. Here's an excerpt from their post:
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donate at least $25 dollars, and you'll receive a fantastic assortment of goodies - including bus tickets, Dave's Killer Bread, free bowling shoe rental, free gelato and more!

What's more, TLC Farm is organizing an "incentive event" soon for everyone who donated through the Give!Guide, to go out and use our incentives together (gelato and bowling, anyone?) and meet fellow supporters of TLC Farm.

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The local indie paper is the go-between, publishing the guide and offering the "incentives". The "incentive package" is an effective, if inevitable draw. Since we humans can't seem to advance to giving-without-getting, all that often. But the event was what really caught my eye. "Go out and use our incentives together" - what a great expression of the potential to transform, starting where we are, even in a consumptive world. Even with our entertainment, yeah. (The catholicworker/IWW phrase that I love: building a new world in the shell of the old.) Every action counts, right? Every person's needed, right? If it is in fact the world we are talking about... And not everybody's ready for, or empowered of, more sweeping actions. And, not everybody having the same kinds of wealth, perhaps those with the tangible and those with other kinds (time, energy, information - the great wealth and privilege of activists) could do a little more exchanging, come down from their "separate" categories. I like how even the most citified of consumers are welcomed to participate in this one. And to the good of a land-based experiment, right in the heart of the city. Tryon's site is www.tryonfarm.org if anyone would like to see more of the beautiful ways they're transforming their corner of the world.