squirrels and giving

A journal entry from yesterday:

1- Looking out a window everyday I end up watching a group of squirrels in the little court yard I have here. They are always playing around, running away from cats, and hiding their nuts in the ground. Today, Saturday, I realized the squirrels do not know that today is Saturday; indeed "Saturday" means nothing to them. They are still just doing their thing. Would that be freedom?

2- I've been reading Ted Purves's book, What We Want is Free. In his article, "Blows Against the Empire," he talks about the gift economy and that if one truly gives a gift, they are giving something of importance away without expecting to receive something of equal value in return. The economy we grow up in, however, teaches us that if we are getting something we give back something of equal value - usually money. I've heard it said, and this usually applies to physics, "For every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction." It seems that somehow we have applied this to more than just physics.

I have been weary of "generosity in the arts" because often times it seems like an artist is just being a do-gooder and getting credit for it. Acts of charity seem to just carry the notion of the artist-as-better-than-you mindset that we have tried to shed ourselves of. Purves might be saying, or at least I gather from what he is saying, that an artistic act of generosity/giving if done with the expectations to receive something of similar value in return (credit) is an act that has already been co-opted by the present economy and the world view within it. I've also heard it said, "Give to others without expecting to receive anything in return." So, within this realization I am more willing to do some "artistic act of generosity" because it is in defiance to current systems that I do not agree with. It's practically a form of institutional critique. That's the way I usually roll.