Blog

-people index

The Whole Earth Catalog provided access to tools and was very successful. Now picture this: a catalog, maybe as large as the Last Whole Earth, but with names, addresses, telephone numbers of people. Okay? A very special telephone and address book. A telephone and address book providing access to people, each with a bit, or several bits, of knowledge which could be shared for the price of a letter or phone call with someone needing that knowledge. Everything indexed into proper headings. Every person in the book because he or she wants to share his or her knowledge. Think of the possibilities.

For example, my father has been a buttermaker and creamery man for 35 years. Besides that, he has a wonderful fund of knowledge about electrical wiring and refrigeration. Suppose we had a heading like “Dairy Products”:

Dairy Products: Paul Gasche, ### Street Ave., Napoleon, Ohio, #####. Ph. ###-###-####. Buttermaker, house wiring, refrigeration.

Cross index this under electricity or house wiring. Here is a wealth of knowledge that can be tapped for the price of a phone call or a letter. Suppose a commune wants to make a churn or is having problems when they try to churn large amounts of butter. Or an individual using a fruit jar can’t get butter from cream. A phone call and probably Dad could tell them what was wrong.

Do you see what I mean? It seems feasible to me. It seems practical. It seems worthwhile. It seems warm and friendly. It seems humane. It seems in keeping with the kind of lifestyle we’d like to see emerge. Indeed, the kind of lifestyle that is emerging.

So why don’t I start such a catalog? I’ll be happy to do the indexing and the typing if you can get 10,000 to send me the information and will seriously consider the manuscript.

We all have skills, experiences, talents we could share if only we knew who wanted them and could reach these people at the time they needed the knowledge.