Yesterday I met with two paramedic friends.   The BC system is collapsing, as we have seen this summer.   We’re about fixing the world’s problems.   Lots here.  But the bottom line?   The joy is going out of it. 

This morning I chatted briefly with another friend who’d had an accident, was treated and taken to hospital by an ambulance, treated in the ER, then taken to another hospital for surgery by an ambulance, fixed and returned.  Reflecting he said, every single step of that experience was great; the paramedics, the emerg. Staff, the doctors, all of it.  Maybe not the experience itself, but the people.   Those people who served him must have had some joy to give. 

I was a paramedic.  I know how good it is to be able to give – to the people I served.   We all know that.   Are stresses these days squeezing opportunity for joy out of life?   Are we letting that happen?  Are we letting the joy we have to give be shut down?   

This is a piece of the new economics that will get us through more than just the collapse the ambulance service is experiencing.  My broken friend got looked after, but he came away with a dividend from the experience, you might call it interest on his investment.    And that’s the change that we can use to keep us going as things get tough.    Joy.   The dividend of giving.    Got some?  You can’t keep it.  It only counts when given.  

We might even call this a new kind of capital.   Apparently only banks can create money, but who can’t create Joy?   Think of the possibilities.