I read a book recently in which all commerce stops. Humans are on their own, to survive with only their own resources. No stores, no organizations, no businesses, no clinics, nothing. It got me to thinking. If that were to ever happen, if we lived communally, could the Hieb family make it?
Well, in the health category, we more than have that covered. We have a physical therapist, 2 doctors, 1 dentist, a medical technologist, a cardiac cath expert, a nurse anesthetist and a nursing student. By the looks of it, if we could barter with a pharmacist for some propofol, we could probably even offer some basic surgery at our place!
We have a health and fitness expert to keep us all heart-healthy, and a teacher who can keep all the grandkiddies homeschooled. We have an artist who would bring beauty from many mediums into all of our homes. We have a firefighter/EMT to keep our commune from burning down, and two amazing salesmen who could, I am sure, barter with anyone else in another commune for just about anything.
We have a gerontologist to handle all of the aging issues, a social worker and a counselor to manage all the emotional Hieb irregularities and idiosyncrasies. Our counselor is also a lawyer if we need to re-vamp all our wills. We have a budding journalist to gather info from the outside world.
We have many great cooks, but not as many gardeners. So if we needed to grow our own food, we would need to mobilize nearly everyone to garden (our PT would have his hands full dealing with those gardening backaches). We have lots of avid fishermen/women, and 4-5 men who can hunt bird and game. We also have 3 (soon to be 5) grandbabies to keep us all young.
We have at least 5 guitarists who could keep us in music. Our teacher cans food, which would be a real plus. Many can sew.
Would it work? It makes one wonder. What do we really need to live? How much can we do without? How would our lives be if we had only the gifts and talents of those in our family to sustain our existence?
Hmmmm…..I don’t know. As for me, if only someone in the family was a librarian and still had keys to the public library….
2 comments:
This post had me giggling! As a massage therapist...I definitely went through my 'hippy mindset' days as my Dad likes to call them. I truly believed we could all live in a bartering system and be much happier living as a community rather than climbing over one another to get ahead.
What can I say, in my days as a massage therapist the only thing I can think of that I didn't have a chance to barter for was gas!! I was even offered a deal on rent!! ha!!
I loved this. So much fun to think about. Judging from three days of togetherness at the family reunion this summer, I think we'd all have a lot of fun... and they we'd go crazy :) Love you!
Post a Comment