Trading time instead of a dime

Trade can be fair in many ways, even within our own local communities.  Here's a recent experience I had with a different type of "fair trade."

I needed some light electrical work done in my house, the installation of a new closet light, porch light and outdoor outlet.  I called a local electrician and received a quote of $65 an hour with the promise of a few hours of work plus materials.  Hmmm.  Then I went to Brattleboro Time trade and listed my electrical installation needs.  Within a few days two local men offered to do the work, for free.  Well almost for free.  They would be getting paid in time.

However much time it took them to do the job, plus travel (I live in Marlboro), was how much time I would deposit into their online time bank account.  The fact that I recently joined the Brattleboro Time Trade and had less than two hours in my account (for attending the orientation meeting and setting up my online account) did not matter.  Like the rest of the country, I was entering into a deficit and the Time Bank was willing to take me on. 

Both men were from my local community and one was a semi-retired electrical engineer.  I took up the engineer’s offer and once he returned from his trip to Cuba and I from Canada, he was in my home wiring, drilling, and making that electrical magic happen.  But it was not just electrical magic which was happening, a change took place.  He was not just a contractor to me.   I was not paying him money for his services.  So the informal niceties, hoping he does a good quick job, and “let me know how I can help” while the dollar meter is ticking in my head and I’m secretly hoping this guy leaves quickly so my bill is not so high, does not happen.   Instead there is a feeling of camaraderie, wonder, and appreciation. 

I think to myself, “this person is here to help me.”  This was a person who I only casually knew in town and now he was in my home doing me a big favor.  The time I was paying did have some of the same feeling as money, because often I feel that I do not have enough time – just like sometimes I feel I do not have enough money.   I did find myself on several occasions calculating the time cost of the job and wondering how I would ever re-pay it, but it was a different feeling.  I felt equal in our ability to share and work together.  Money creates great inequality, someone might have more than someone else, it is hard to change that.  With time, it is always there, albeit however busy we are.   Each day we start out with 24 hours - every day guaranteed, no matter what our educational background or socio-economic condition, the time is there.   We all begin with the same 24-hour deposit into our daily account.  This creates a feeling of abundance, rather than the feelings of scarcity, which monetary funds (or a lack of) bring.

So the relationship shifted.  Though I had planned to do my own work when he was working, I found I could not concentrate.  My curiosity was killing me.  Who was this person?  Why was he in the Time Trade?  What had he traded? (a ride to the airport) How had it been?  How did he learn to work with electricity?  Suddenly I was intrigued.  I wondered over to chat and we chatted for hours.  It was delightful.  We found we were alma matter from the same grad school (SIT), shared a love of travel, laughed over the trials and tribulations of both having been Brattleboro landlords, and had similar political views.  The job took hours longer than I had thought it would.  I made him snack, we shared lunch together out on the porch, I offered him vegetables from our garden, played with his dog.  It was great.  I felt like I made a new friend.

            After five hours had passed, “we” were almost finished.  I had begun to feel a responsibility for the job too.  I felt bad about “using up” so much of his time, though he assured me it was OK, it was what he wanted to be doing.   My closet finally had a light, the porch light was wired and just about ready to go.  He would have to come back to finish, we had about an hour left. I found myself looking forward to his return as much as I was looking forward to being able to finally see my front steps at night.

Researching Time Trade I learned that it was dreamed up in the 1980s by Antioch law School founder, Dr. Edgar S. Cahn, as he recovered from a heart attack at age 46.  He saw Time Dollars as a “new currency” which would provide a solution to the massive cuts in government spending on social welfare which were taking place then (as is now).  It was a process, but the idea evolved to become a growing global model.  There are now Time Banks in Canada, Chile, Curacao, Dominican Republic, Israel, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, South Korea, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom. 

The US Time trade mission, according to their web site, www.timebanks.org, is about rebuilding communities through economic and social system reform, human empowerment and a contribution to each other’s well-being.   This is summed up as, “strengthening communities through reciprocity.”  The language was familiar.  I had just finished my doctoral thesis on the Effects of Fair Trade on Bolivia’s Indigenous Women.  While the US Fair Trade model helped to bring greater social and economic justice to these women, it was a hollow monetary benefit.  There was something more which was missing. 

Bolivia recently re-wrote their constitution centered around the indigenous concept of “Suma Qamana” or “good living” (as opposed to the “good life” which US people are thought to pursue – better cars, bigger houses, more things).  Good living was associated with well-being – it was having community, support and food, getting basic needs met both physically and socially.  This, claimed the Bolivians, was achieved through reciprocity.  Until now, I found this hard to define.

I re-read the Time Trade mission; “strengthening communities through reciprocity.”  There was that elusive word again.  I had understood it as a vague “give and take.”  The Brattleboro Time Trade site explained reciprocity more deeply.  While reciprocity was a “two-way street,” they elaborated that, “people that only receive end up feeling dis-empowered, as though they have nothing to offer. People that only give often gain an inflated sense of their own importance. Reciprocity leads to mutual respect.” 

I remembered feeling guilty as I saw my poor Time Trade helper sweating as he worked on my porch light, black jeans and shirt on a hot summer day.  I quickly ran to my garden to see if there were vegetables I could offer him (he did not cook).  I realize now, I had been trying to counter the feeling of “dis-empowernment” I felt at the moment, as I solely received.  This was the same feeling the knitters felt as they were well paid for their work through the Fair Trade model.  The knitters were grateful for their monetary earnings, but like me, they wanted to be able to give something back, to engage in reciprocity and develop that sense of mutual respect. 

And so on a quiet Sunday morning I awoke with these thoughts drifting in from an already forgotten dream.  Waking up while tapping on my keypad, the thoughts solidified to this article.  Now two hours later, I feel a sense of awe at our great community and the things we bring to each other.  The Time Banks web page is peppered with the names of local supporters, SoverNet, Post Oil Solutions, Brattleboro Savings & Loan, New England Grassroots Environmental Fund, Delta Energy Group, Vermont Community Foundation, the Thomas Thompson Trust and many more.  On a personal level, I feel I just found a new friend in our community and in the Time Bank and the people who are a part of it.  I also feel a welling sense of generosity, gratefulness, support and caring as I realize that this is a community that can be relied upon.  After living here ten years, Brattleboro still brings surprises, new faces and wonderful connections.  And in the most enjoyable, joyful way, through writing which I love to do, I just earned two hours of time for my Time Bank account. 

For more information or to join Time Trade please call 802-246-1699, or visit www. brattlebortimetrade.org, or stop by their office at 15 Grove Street, Brattleboro.