Editor’s note: On April, 27, ecoRI News publisher Joanna Detz was invited to speak at Channing Memorial Church’s Earth Day service in Newport, R.I. The theme of the service was “Take only what you need. Share. Give thanks.” This is what she said.

Every single household in my Portsmouth [R.I.] neighborhood has its own lawn mower. Every single household.

This isn’t a screed about lawn mowers or lawns, but an observation of a symptom of the larger consumerism web in which we are caught.

It’s a system that values single ownership over sharing and generosity. And rugged individualism over the collective community.

And I often find myself wondering: What if my entire neighborhood collectively owned one lawnmower? What if we collectively owned one extension ladder? One chainsaw?

In my mind’s eye, I imagine a central shed to house a shared library of big-ticket items that neighbors can sign out to use and for which we share maintenance costs.

Sharing among neighbors would free up household finances, save natural resources, reduce waste, and foster a sense of community.

Of course, our modern world is not set up this way. The long tail of the frontier spirit echoes today — and it’s every person for themselves. We live in neighborhoods that aren’t really communities. Our homes have become islands.

Moreover, the health of our economy is measured based on how much we consume not how much we share or give away.

Think about the consumer confidence index and the outsized role it plays in moving the markets.

And while we all contribute to the consumption economy, only a few at the top reap the benefits. The rest of us get by, or, worse, we’re overleveraged.

In the meantime, the natural world bears the brunt of the extractive processes that deliver an endless stream of cheap stuff that we really don’t need but that we’re told we must have.

It is a system that is irreparably broken, and it is breaking us. It is breaking nature.

But what if we could all practice radical generosity and fight back against the mentality of resource scarcity and overconsumption. What would that look like?

For some it might look like tearing up a portion of their lawn and giving that space over to pollinators. For others, it might look like planting a vegetable garden and sharing a bumper crop of tomatoes with neighbors.

There are so many ways we can push back against a system that espouses a theory of scarcity that has led to hoarding of resources at the top.

When I was quite young, growing up north of San Francisco, I remember one night my Dad taking me to the city for a special outing, a classical music concert — just him and me.

It was wintertime, and I was warm in my winter coat as we raced through the darkened streets from the parking lot to symphony hall. We were running late, and I struggled to keep up.

Then suddenly, my Dad stopped. In the shadows on the sidewalk was a woman who was homeless with her child, a few years younger than I was. I remember being shocked to watch my Dad pull the bills out of his wallet and hand them to the woman. At the time, I did not understand why my Dad would give the entire contents of his wallet to a perfect stranger on a dark night.

This act of generosity stuck with me. As an adult I can now view the scenario through my Dad’s eyes. How he must have felt the weight of our prosperity in the face of such need. How easily that could have been him and me on the streets.

Judaism, the faith in which I was raised, espouses a central concept called “tikun olam,” which, translated from the Hebrew, means “repairing the world.”

Though I am no longer a practicing member of my faith, the idea of living a life devoted to repairing the world and the Earth has carried forward.

The Earth and the natural systems that sustain all of us are especially in need of repairing.

This brings me to my work as the publisher and co-founder of ecoRI News. Our newsroom, which reports on environmental issues in Rhode Island and southern New England, is a nonprofit. Nonprofits themselves are outliers in the capitalist system, with business models based on sharing and giving back.

At ecoRI News, we believe critical information about the plight of our natural world is too important a resource to monetize or guard behind a paywall, and so we offer all our news for free to anyone who wants it.

I often like to think of that word “circulation” which newspapers use to measure the number of subscriptions they sell.

In our case, circulation means putting a resource — that is news — into the community and allowing people to have it for free.

We hope that based on the news they consume, readers become better stewards of the natural world and advocate for its protection.

The act of giving away free environmental news results in more people caring about and healing the natural world. It comes full circle.

If I think about it, circulation and circularity are the basis of natural systems that have existed for millions of years, allowing for the survival of the wildlife and plants around us.

A tree dies, it gives its life force and its nutrients back to the soil, which, in turn, bears new life.

It was all working fine until modern humans broke the circle and began practicing an economy of extraction. A system of one-way lines that pumps resources out of the Earth.

I’d encourage all of us to think more circularly. Circulate news, circulate abundance, circulate resources, and circulate empathy. Heal the world.

Tikun olam.

Joanna Detz is the ecoRI News publisher and co-founder.