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18. Seeing Nicky off to College

Reflection by Edgar Cahn

Take literally what was said: “from friend to Aunt to Mother”.  His biological parents did not live.  But now Nicky had family. That says it all. Or almost all. Because that story squared becomes the human family.

In Timebanking, a transaction becomes a relationship.  And the relationship grows and deepens.  And it births new possibilities.  In this story, the journey is to college.  But what we do not know is what the acts of helping did for the helper, for Heidi, what it set in motion for her.

We know the vertical transaction of giver to receiver – but we do not know the horizontal rings that ripple outward for either or both giver and receiver, expanding circles that can transform both worlds, hers and his.  And we have not begun to appreciate or tap the possibilities for their discrete worlds – possibilities that opened up, possibilities that emerged from a single action that enabled them both to discover what is possible for each.


Next page: 19. TimeBank’s Olympic Champions

 

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