There’s nothing quite like a little pile of things on the porch to send a quiet reminder — We can fix the world. We have all the *things* we need to do that.
I get home to these little piles several times a week. A pack of deodorant here, a gallon of milk there. A Target gift card with an anonymous note to pass on to someone who needs it. A panini press from a friend of a friend because they saw a Facebook post. An old laptop from a compost clubber who knows we’ll get it to recycling. Clothes that are just the right size and have been picked via text between someone just getting started and someone who has too much – and we just happen to know both people.
Our porch has become somewhat of a portal — transferring items from where they are, to where they need to be. And although the lawn and the tiny library and the compost bins and all the things are also magnificent in their own way, the porch is really where the anti-consumerist, anti-capitalist, anti-individualist mutual aid magic actually happens. It’s where all those other things come together to make the ultimate point:
Even in suburban nightmare 2025 climate change doom world – the people are in control. We can and DO take care of each other. We can, as individuals change the systems of isolation that limit us and generate resource scarcity.
There is no expectation of return in this model. No payments required, and no questions asked other than “Do you know someone who can someone use this,” or “I want to make sure this meets a specific request that was made.” Although these little piles of things are often (but certainly not always) destined to pass through a relatively traditional non-profit structure – Youth Mart – just by nature of my work there, the broader mutual aid “flavor” is absolutely there.
People consistently and mindfully sharing resources with other people through decentralized and community based networks. People breaking down the disconnect between those who give and those who receive. People using the systems we have – the nonprofit industrial cycle – to build the one we need – a truly mutual aid based system of resource sharing. Items don’t flow one way from the haves to the have nots – they flow from an intuitive system of who has it now to who needs it next! Things go every which way!
This model takes time, and it certainly has its imperfections. In a binaric social media world that seems to shout at us that imperfect mutual aid doesn’t count, or that mutual aid is “communism” or somesuch and shouldn’t be the goal at all – it can be tricky to continue to engage with. But maybe we can call it something else and just keep chipping away at it, understanding that there is no true and perfect framework for what a sustainable future looks like.
Maybe we just accept our little porch drop paradigm, and see what it becomes.