Commerce Based On Circle Wisdom

Marc Choyt

In May 2008, while receiving an award from Mayor Coss and the Santa Fe Chamber of Commerce for Excellence in Business, I viewed my physical surroundings: wood on the tables, plated food, concrete, drywall, lighting and carpet, and wondered about the true cost of these commodities to the communities that produced them.

My sensitivity to the issue of transparency is acute because I am actively working to counter the ravages of commoditization within the jewelry sector. I know the gold in your wedding ring, unless it was recycled, may well have caused three tons of mercury-laden sludge to be poured into a river where some child bathes every day. Perhaps you bought a diamond in the 1990s, thus unintentionally funding wars resulting in the death of 3.7 million Africans.

You would never support these practices. Yet in my business, just as in almost every other area of commerce, marketing sorcerers spin illusions that disconnect the “consumer” from the consequences of his or her purchase. By not accounting for the true cost of the diamond ring, or even a banquet dinner in a hotel chain, I unwittingly contribute to the ongoing destruction that now threatens Earth’s life-support systems.

Commoditization is that natural outcome of large-scale corporations’ functioning within local communities and economies as neo-colonial entities. Except in obvious cases (such as the current attempts to drill oil in ecologically fragile areas of northern NM), the so called economic benefits of companies that colonize Santa Fe – jobs, price competition and availability of commodities – are rarely considered in light of hidden costs.

It is easy to feel depressed about our current cash-to-trash model that creates spiritually impoverished wealth. I am, however, convinced we are in the process of radically changing to a new economic model.

Structures Behind Business Models

Most business are structured like a pyramid. Resources from the base; communities and the environment are focused on driving profits, as represented by the top point. If the main goal is to deliver to shareholders (which is the law with publicly traded companies), the only way that you can move forward is by rapidly pulling resources from the community and ecology in which you function. Unmitigated growth, disconnected from life systems, is called cancer.

The collaborative Roots exhibition at Pojoaque Pueblo’s Poeh Museum is an
extension of the Institute of American Indian Arts’ “Relations” project.

Yet triangles, which make up pyramids, exist in nature and serve a vital function. I’ve observed from tips of feathers, shark fins, waves, sunflower leaves and even our own teeth, how triangles focus energy toward specific goals. In nature, however, this triangular movement exists within complex relationships that are deeply interdependent and radically equal within the whole: the circle. How can we use the circle model in business that can provide a foundation for a new and just economy? First, it requires a basic understanding how circles work in natural systems.

Right now, I look around at the circles in my environment through my round eyes: trees, fingers, a clay pot, lightbulbs, and my husky dog, Tasha, curled up by my feet. Everywhere around me, circles are functioning. Each point that makes up a circle supports a whole. We talk about the circle of life, or our community circle, because the circle innately supports interdependence.

Experience has taught me that, just as the circle is the fundamental blueprint to nature, it is also the definitive blueprint for a well-functioning community based on sustainability, which, of course, includes businesses. Business is how we exchange with one another in our community circle.