Claiming the Commons
Everyone has a relationship to the commons and a stake in its well-being. We lay claim to a commons first by declaring that there are things belonging to all of us and then by seeing ourselves as protectors, sustainers, even co-creators of the various commons all around us. This includes environmental resources, community institutions, online initiatives, and social accomplishments.
At the heart of the commons dwells the spirit of we—a force we all recognize deep within us that we want to reclaim. But we feel separated from this we. Our everyday world runs by a different set of operating instructions: I, me, mine—my success, my health, my survival. We feel cut off from the potential of our collaborative imagination. We share a collective unconsciousness that yearn to rediscover that we—the commons.
Julie Ristau & Alexa Bradley, We Power in All that we share, Pages 31-32.