Whisperings from Whispered Pearls

Once again, I am inspired by Rox, from Beachwalks with Rox.

She was talking in Beachwalks 551 about “the freedom to give,” specifically mentioning her yoga class and how she ended up giving more when she could give whatever she wanted, as opposed to a set fee.

I think the band Radiohead learned this too, when they offered their album online for whatever people thought it was worth. They ended up having quite a few downloads (with people giving various amounts), but the fascinating thing is that once the physical album was available, it didn’t suffer in its sales at all.

The most important thing about these experiments, I think, is not the dollar amounts given or not given, rather it’s the change in thinking that is propelled here, that needs to be encouraged. Give me what you can afford. Give me what you think I’m worth.

I know that when I’m in a restaurant that forces a 20% tip onto the bill, they get not a penny extra from me. But if it’s variable, I tend to be a good tipper as a rule.

I can see the whole Internet economy (certainly as regards podcasting) going this way. If you like my show, drop a few dollars in the PayPal box. Or pick something off my Amazon wish list and send it to me. And if you’re broke, and can’t afford it, that’s ok too. You can still enjoy the show too.

It somehow puts the whole package into the heart mode, instead of the capitalist pocketbook mode. It is an exchange of good faith. I give you my good faith. Most people will respond with good faith in return. And really, isn’t the whole thing Radiohead was saying was: let’s get it BACK to touching your heart, instead of being money-grubbing pigs here?

I don’t know how Radiohead feels about it, but what encouraged me most reading that story and listening to this show that Rox did, was that. Let’s deal in the commerce of the heart more. Let’s get it back to the square that it needs to be in. A love-based, faith-based economy, instead of the fear, when am I gonna get mine?, place that it’s been in for too long.

All of that being said, right after I finish this, I’m going to explore how to put a PayPal button on this site, cause right now, I do my podcasts for absolutely no money. But I have faith it’s all going to work out, anyway.

Was just watching an old episode of one of my favorite podcasts, Beach Walks with Rox. (Actually, I don’t know how relevant the concept of “old” and “new” really is anymore, since the temporal way that people watch TV and podcasts and every piece of media we take in has changed so much. We get to it when we get to it… But I digress…) 

Beach Walks (www.beachwalks.tv), as you may or may not know, is a podcast filmed in Hawaii. The amazing host, Roxanne, aka Rox, gives us insight or inspiration or just thoughts as she goes through her day (kind of like what we do on Whispered Pearls). But she’s walking along the beaches of Hawaii. A must-watch, btw. 

She also gives various Hawaiian words to us to learn and embrace. For me, a linguist, it has been very interesting. It makes me sad that the Hawaiian language is dying out so much, because Hawaiians seem to embrace language in quite a different way than any I’ve been exposed to. The words quite often come more from spiritual principles, and descriptions of feelings, than the more concrete things that Germanic languages derive from.

Well, at least part of this derives from the fact that Germanic languages come from places dealing with snow and ice, and Hawaii is beaches and sunshine. It does provide people with a different mindset (having lived in both types of places). 

Which brings me to the word she talked about today (well, in the episode I watched today): mahalo. Silly me. I thought I was all over the word mahalo. I knew, roughly, that it meant thank you. I also knew that Jason Calcanis (one of my favorite web stars) had designed a cool site around it (www.mahalo.com), and from that arose Mahalo Daily, another cool podcast. I’m all over mahalo.

Then Rox explained it.

Mahalo, you see, is not only thank you. In fact, it actually is more the word for gratitude. And, as Rox described it, it’s “gratitude mixed with respect.” A typical Hawaiian word. Coming from the spiritual.

And it is now that I can truly embrace mahalo. When I’ve heard people rally around mahalo, I just didn’t get it. Mahalo, I realize now, describes my life, the way I’m trying to live every day. Gratitude, mixed with respect. It is the way I approach people. It is contained in every interaction of every day. Mahalo is one of the best words I have ever heard, in fact, streamlining, as it does such essential stuff, big stuff, into one useful word.

And now that I think of it, I can’t even think of a Germanic equivalent of mahalo. Germans being all stiff and cold, and Hawaiians being all embracing and giving from the heart. (Not to stereotype…but there is some truth in this, again related, I believe to the weather of the areas.)

Fascinating stuff. Thanks again, Rox. Even though I’m so behind with your podcasts, you enlighten me every time I listen.

Sincerely: mahalo. –Michelle