Leave it to those crazy kids. Wide-eyed idealism can take you to strange places. A sale without prices, that’s not unheard of, but a sale with no money? Blasphemy! How will buyer and seller agree to value if there is no exchange? Who will be taking advantage of whom? How will winning and losing be scored? This Saturday, Wellsprings Friends School will hold their fifth annual Free Sale. Community members have donated good and worthwhile items for the sale, only to have these high school idealists turn around and sell them to anyone who happens by for nothing. Zip. Nada. Need a toaster? A bed roll? Art for above your sofa? You may find it here. But don’t try giving them money. They won’t take it. It’s the principle of the thing. This is a school founded on Quaker values, cohabiting with a local Mennonite church. Skepticism about power is a root value for both groups, and money serves most often to disseminate power. As I said, it’s those young people. They don’t know what havoc they could wreak with something as simple and unassuming as a free sale. Or maybe they do.
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