Neighborfully: Grandma-Nomics

Hello, You -

Welcome to Neighborfully, the weekly email newsletter from Neighborful Station. For those of you who are new here, thanks for joining us! I'm Michael, your snazzy and extremely humble host. 😎

Neighborful Idea: Grandma-Nomics

If you've been here for a minute, you know that I think the world of my Grandma. She passed in 2019, at the age of 95, and I'm still amazed that I got to spend so much time with her.

Grandma's spirit, her way of being in the world, is a guiding light for me in this project. I wrote the other day about how she taught me that thoughtfulness is a system. Today, I want to talk about Grandma-Nomics, which is how I think of the economic model of Neighborful Station.

Take a moment and imagine a loving person in your life, who sees you fully, and who wants the best for you. (It doesn't have to be a grandparent - in your case, it might be a teacher, a mentor, a dear friend.)

How is this person going to invest in you?

First, they want more than anything for you to fulfill your potential. They feel joy in seeing you thrive. They want you healthy, happy, and purposeful.

Second, they will be generous. They want you to feel well supported, to feel safe taking good risks in service of your potential. They will look for ways to surprise you with their generosity - financial, emotional, and every other kind.

Third, they will be patient. They know that it can take time for you to achieve your dreams. You might be a seed in the ground for a long time, taking root out of sight. Your loving person is capable of imagining the mighty tree that you will become, and is prepared to wait, to watch with delight as you grow.

Now: Feel the presence of this person in your life. Feel them saying yes. Feel them noticing you, appreciating your work, laughing with you, loving what you bring to the world.

You deserve to be treated this way, all the time.

Grandma-Nomics is my nickname for a system that invests in you, and us, so that we can fulfill our potential. A system that makes space for your growth, and invites your creativity, because we all need to benefit from whatever you're meant to do.

If this sounds naive, I'll have you know that my Grandma was sharp as a tack when it came to business. Years ago, I won a sales incentive trip to Morocco at work. My family and friends were super excited for me. But Grandma said, "Now you've got a problem" - and she was right.

When you're in the tech sales world, the reward for good work is more work. If you have a great year, your quota will be set impossibly high the next year. She's the only person in my life who really understood that the trip was also the start of a trap.

In that spirit of clarity, I'm going to go out on a limb and gently suggest that our economy might work better, and might be stronger and more sustainable, if we all practice a little Grandma-Nomics.

Bringing more generosity into the world can feel like a 'chicken and egg' problem, because it's hard to offer generosity when you feel like you're losing. You can't give when you feel like you're getting taken. I think this is a big reason why things are so tough in the US right now: We didn't do enough to address the losses, real or perceived, that people were feeling. Jobs went away. Rural places got left behind in the Internet age. We lost sight of the first duty of a healthy society, which is to invest generously and patiently in each person's potential.

There are some key places to start, or re-start, investing. The Quaker activist George Lakey, in his book Viking Economics, notes that healthcare, education, and retirement are the "big three" financial worries in most people's lives. They are the sources of worry that good governments strive to address, and serve, and solve, on behalf of their people. We made some big strides in the 20th century toward solving for the big three, but we also ended up taking some equally big steps in the wrong direction.

I remain stubbornly hopeful about the US. I believe that a country of 300+ million people, which has long been a beacon for the rest of the world, can find our way toward Grandma-Nomics for all. While we're making that happen, I invite you to keep gathering here at Neighborful Station. Let's stay connected to our sense of what's possible, and what's waiting for us on the other side of our generosity.

This Week in Neighborful Station 🪴

Our latest episode is Greenhouses and Gardens (Apple)(Spotify). You get to tour the Greenhouse District, and meet the founder of the Neighborful Station Land Trust. Peppers get picked, apples get eaten. It's a delicious episode. 🫑🍎

Coming up this Saturday: Harvest Festival. 🎡

NEW: The Neighborful Gazette Podcast 🎧

This week, we re-launched the Neighborful Gazette as a podcast series, telling real-world stories of good neighbors in PA and around the United States. In our debut episode, Sabina Leybold from Philly tells us about her 50 States Dinner Series (Apple)(Spotify). These episodes will appear on the Neighborful Station feed, so if you're following the show in your podcast app, they will show up automagically.

Call The Neighbor Line! ☎️

I love hearing your stories of neighbors who have taken great care of you. Call today and share your story - and your message just might appear in an episode of Neighborful Station! The number to call is +1 (814) 366-5824. Operators are not standing by, but only because they've stepped out to get some funnel cakes at the Harvest Festival.

Stay Neighborful on BlueSky! 🦋

As part of 100 Neighborful Days, I'm hosting Shout Out Mondays, Bump Day Wednesdays, and Easter Egg Fridays over on BlueSky, where I'm posting as neighborfulstation.bsky.social. See you there.

That's it for this week! Thanks so much for being here.

Meet me at the bumper cars, Michael