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A review by hannahmadden
The Wild Birds: Six Stories of the Port William Membership by Wendell Berry
5.0
Reading the whole Port William series for the first time to learn more from WB about membership in a community and caring for your neighbors, and he is popping off!!!
“But Wheeler raises a hand, and goes on. ‘It's not accountable, because we're dealing in goods and services that we didn't make, that can't exist at all except as gifts. Everything about a place that's different from its price is a gift. Everything about a man or woman that's different from their price is a gift. The life of a neighborhood is a gift. I know that if you bought a calf from Nathan Coulter you’d pay him for it, and that's right. But aside from that, you're friends and neighbors, you work together, and so there's lots of giving and taking without a price- some that you don't remember, some that you never knew about. You don't send a bill. You don't, if you can help it, keep an account. Once the account is kept and the bill pre-sented, the friendship ends, the neighborhood is finished, and you're back to where you started. The starting place doesn't have anybody in it but you.’
‘It's before the line of succession,’ Elton says.
‘That's right.’”
“But Wheeler raises a hand, and goes on. ‘It's not accountable, because we're dealing in goods and services that we didn't make, that can't exist at all except as gifts. Everything about a place that's different from its price is a gift. Everything about a man or woman that's different from their price is a gift. The life of a neighborhood is a gift. I know that if you bought a calf from Nathan Coulter you’d pay him for it, and that's right. But aside from that, you're friends and neighbors, you work together, and so there's lots of giving and taking without a price- some that you don't remember, some that you never knew about. You don't send a bill. You don't, if you can help it, keep an account. Once the account is kept and the bill pre-sented, the friendship ends, the neighborhood is finished, and you're back to where you started. The starting place doesn't have anybody in it but you.’
‘It's before the line of succession,’ Elton says.
‘That's right.’”