Taking a leaf from her beloved book Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer gleans life lessons from the humble serviceberry tree: embrace "the gift economy" and give as generously as the tree shares its fruits. Known by more than seven names, the serviceberry is beloved in indigenous cultures for its benefits of beauty and sustenance for humans and other creatures. Confronting the dire effects of human overconsumption, Kimmerer nevertheless offers hope that people might live harmoniously with the Earth.
Kimmerer teaches at the College of Environmental Science and Forestry in New York and is founder of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment. Her premise in The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World foregrounds examples from Native as well as natural practices. "When the natural world is understood as a gift instead of private property, there are ethical constraints" that limit its overuse, she writes. By contrast, a capitalist economy takes water, "a gift from the skies," and "encase[s] it in plastic containers to sell," and "an old-growth forest is 'worth' far more as lumber than as the lungs of the Earth."
Kimmerer relies on "our oldest teachers, the plants," to impart the rules of a gift economy, including "take only what you need" and "ask permission before taking." In this diminutive primer, illustrated with delicate, detailed sketches by internationally renowned artist John Burgoyne, Kimmerer suggests that "wealth means having enough to share." In spite of her grim accounts of diminishing resources, Kimmerer describes birds with bellies full of serviceberries and cultures based on generosity, gently inspiring readers to embrace a sense of "enoughness." --Cheryl McKeon, Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza, Albany, N.Y.