Some years ago The New Yorker magazine published a cartoon of a man standing at his front door. Speaking over his shoulder to his wife, he says something like, "It’s the Goodwill man, Edith. Are we giving or getting?" This sums up perfectly my relationship with Goodwill through the years. From the start of our marriage, it was Mel and Me and the Goodwill Store. Being too poor to buy furniture at a regular furniture store, we headed over and over again to the nearest Goodwill outlet.
In a few years we accumulated quite an interesting assortment of furniture, dishes, and creaking appliances.
By the time we had enough money to buy a dining room table with six chairs that matched, we began donating things back to Goodwill. So over the course of 40 years, we either gave or got, and had a lot of fun doing it. The whole process has led me to develop what I am calling "A Simple Plan to Change the Global Economy and Save the World."
The idea is simple. We have merely to establish a number of giant warehouses equally distributed around the globe. These will be stocked with the things people need in order to live—chairs and tables, rugs, books, pictures, lawn mowers, and tortilla chips. The financing will be easy. We’ll just sell all the weapons of war. If you need something, you can head for a Goodwill store and help yourself. If you have a surplus of something, you donate it. No money will change hands. Everyone will have enough and no one will need to invade anyone else’s country.
After we have the first part of this plan up and running, we’ll establish something else, an assortment of Spiritual Goodwill stores. Like the other warehouses, these will be located all over the world. They’ll be stocked with spiritual necessities—faith, kindness, understanding, tolerance, and whole shelves of patience and good humor. On the days when your kids are pushing all your buttons, you can drop by and pick up some patience. When nobody understands you, you can get a little comfort. But on the days when you wake up overflowing with love for the whole human race, you’re obliged to leave some of it with the Goodwill Store.
There’s a tiny problem with my plan. I haven’t the least notion how to get it in operation. It’s certainly too important to leave with the leaders and politicians of the world. The only thing I can think of is to ask Friends to set up a committee and get things rolling. If anyone can do it, we can!