{"id":502,"date":"2025-07-29T13:59:40","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T20:59:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/?p=502"},"modified":"2025-08-12T15:48:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T22:48:10","slug":"the-care-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/29\/the-care-economy\/","title":{"rendered":"the care economy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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give to ryk<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The care economy is an emerging model for supporting people, things, and processes we\u2019d like to see more of in the world.<\/em><\/strong> It is about recognizing the things in our experience that bring us joy, that give us a [wow] or a [yes], and responding to these moments in a supportive way. It\u2019s actually just, well, practicing care, and that\u2019s not new at all. But the language of commerce is transactional, rather than responsive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I recognize that I love the work that I do with people so much that I would offer it for free if I was supported<\/em><\/strong>\u2013if all of my needs were met. But traditional models don\u2019t allow for that type of responsiveness. I would like to try to move toward a more responsive system, built on trust. Why not?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People who know me can decide if they trust the work I do, and they can choose to support me so that I can do that work, or not.<\/em><\/strong> In doing so, they are allowing me to be more myself, and guiding me toward their own needs. I\u2019m the product, in a sense, but since our relationship is based on trust, I\u2019m allowed to do the work I believe, adjusting to the needs that arise, as they align with those who trust me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This simple shift makes the difference between the transactional and the responsive.<\/em><\/strong> But it\u2019s kind of vulnerable and scary. I have to trust those that are responding. Will I be supported? Will enough people believe in the work? If I am being truly responsive to their needs, then perhaps. I think it\u2019s worth a try.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I see a difference between commitment and obligation.<\/em><\/strong> Commitment is a responsive engagement, where we meet the needs of the moment as it arises. Obligation can keep us stuck supporting processes that actually hinder our ability to respond to the moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, I see a possibility emerging to do things in a more responsive way,<\/em><\/strong> and in seeing how obligation often thwarts connection, I would like to avoid transactions that create a sense of obligation, and nurture ones that give one a sense of [wow] or [yes].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, think about our interactions in the spaces we share.<\/em><\/strong> If our conversations seem to be taking us in good directions, let\u2019s continue the conversation. If helping to support me gives you a sense of [wow] or [yes], then you are participating in the care economy. Thank you for recognizing your own power to support, and if our goals align, thank you for your support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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give to ryk<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The care economy is an emerging model for supporting people, things, and processes we\u2019d like to see more of in the world.\u00a0It is about recognizing the things in our experience that bring us joy, that give us a [wow] or a [yes], and responding to these moments in a supportive way. It\u2019s actually just, well, practicing care, and that\u2019s not new at all. But the language of commerce is transactional, rather than responsive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[29,27,28,2,7,31,8,24,5,6,14,26,16,15,9,4,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chronicle","category-didactics","category-ethos","category-family-music","category-finds","category-innerlog","category-literature","category-meme","category-musicology","category-neighborhood","category-neurodiversity","category-personal-narrative","category-poem","category-politics","category-reflection","category-ukulele","category-zen"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paor1p-86","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":583,"url":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2025\/08\/12\/the-care-economy-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":502,"position":0},"title":"the care economy","author":"Ryk Groetchen","date":"August 12, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"give The care economy is an emerging model for supporting people, things, and processes we\u2019d like to see more of in the world.\u00a0It is about recognizing the things in our experience that bring us joy, that give us a [wow] or a [yes], and responding to these moments in a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "neurodiversity"","block_context":{"text":"neurodiversity","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/category\/neurodiversity\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":732,"url":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2026\/03\/29\/top\/","url_meta":{"origin":502,"position":1},"title":"musical environments To learn more\u2026","author":"Ryk Groetchen","date":"March 29, 2026","format":"status","excerpt":"musical environments To learn more about or sign up for Ryk\u2019s family musical environments, visit the imeetswe homepage musical environments the care economy The care economy is an emerging model for supporting people, things, and processes we\u2019d like to see more of in the world. give to ryk","rel":"","context":"In "neurodiversity"","block_context":{"text":"neurodiversity","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/category\/neurodiversity\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":878,"url":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2026\/09\/01\/call-to-action-mutual-support-for-tammy-zo\/","url_meta":{"origin":502,"position":2},"title":"call to action: mutual support for Tammy Zo","author":"Ryk Groetchen","date":"September 1, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Our friend Tammy Zo (Pollard) needs our support. She is homeless, and in grave danger of losing her belongings, many of which are cultural archives and work that she has created herself. The fact that she needs our support is a consequence of our culture's failure to maintain mutual support\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chronicle"","block_context":{"text":"chronicle","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/category\/chronicle\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/img_1835.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/img_1835.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/img_1835.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/img_1835.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/img_1835.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":880,"url":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2026\/09\/12\/what-does-autism-even-mean\/","url_meta":{"origin":502,"position":3},"title":"what does autism even mean?","author":"Ryk Groetchen","date":"September 12, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"peers, autists, human companions: lend me your cognitive architecture (ears are not enough). what we now call \"autism\" originally described a way of thinking that its own framers acknowledged that everyone experiences. If \"autistic thinking\" is something that everyone experiences, where is the line drawn between \"everyone\" and the autistic\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "neurodiversity"","block_context":{"text":"neurodiversity","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/category\/neurodiversity\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":632,"url":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2025\/09\/10\/attentional-disengagement\/","url_meta":{"origin":502,"position":4},"title":"Attentional Disengagement","author":"Ryk Groetchen","date":"September 10, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Thesis: the attentional disengagement family of predispositions is a healthy and strategic set of adaptations within a species or community with strong tendencies to cooperate. In a species adapted to function through tight coordination, the coordinated activity can become prioritized, causing those engaged to lose sight of the emergent reason\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chronicle"","block_context":{"text":"chronicle","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/category\/chronicle\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":776,"url":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2026\/06\/10\/adulting-and-its-opposite\/","url_meta":{"origin":502,"position":5},"title":"adulting and its opposite","author":"Ryk Groetchen","date":"June 10, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"here's the thing that's so hard to reconcile as i move into the last third of my life: as much as i appear to my peers to overshare about my inner life, i feel like a tentative teenager when i consider the world i thought i would find myself in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chronicle"","block_context":{"text":"chronicle","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/category\/chronicle\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/img_1462.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/img_1462.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/img_1462.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/img_1462.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=502"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":582,"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502\/revisions\/582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}