Giving something away for free created a new friendship

I play table tennis. I love it, for reasons I won't go into here. Which makes giving a table away a more personal thing than it sounds.

I gave mine away knowing whoever took it would probably enjoy it as much as I had. I listed it online, got one message from someone local, who turned up quickly to collect it. We got talking, and I said if he ever fancied a hit, to let me know. He did.

This week, after a year of travelling, having returned, we finally got a game. The game was good, but three other things came out of it.

The joy the table had given him, playing with his wife, his son and his daughter, in the year I hadn't seen it.

That someone living this close to me turned out to hold a lot of the same views about how to live and yet I'd never met them before.

And that by giving something away, I received a place to play, a probable friend, and a set of connections that run well beyond the man who collected it.

In some parts of the world, sharing still wins out over individual gain. And when you break it down, sharing isn't really about the exchange of items at all. Isn't it about the bonds, the connections, the widening of a community that comes from the act?