Very nice opening Francis. Great topic too. While enjoying possessions throughout my life, I've never felt much sense of ownership in them. I get things, enjoy them, then pass them on to others. I think I get that from having been completely divested of family and possessions when I was a young teenager. Family was a distant concept that eluded me and I felt no draw to stay in one place longer than I felt like it. In my early twenties couple of years in prison divested me of any further sense of possession that might have remained.
>From the time I was a young man until I was in my mid 40's, I owned one suitcase, a few small boxes and moved a lot. As a result any form of possessiveness eluded me. When I got ready to move, if it didn't fit into that suitcase and a few small boxes, it got sold, donated, tossed or left behind. I never felt a need for anything but myself nor did I ever feel any loss at leaving anything behind. Material possessions were a major pain in the ass to own and care for so it never bothered me to lose them because I could always get them again. I never owned real property when I was young because I couldn't see myself staying in one place long enough and I'd probably have wound up losing it or selling it at a loss because I needed money. As I got older I began to develop the perspective that you don't really own land -- it owns you. What with maintenance, taxes, upkeep and the vicissitudes of the real estate market, people become a slave to their real estate. Now that I'm a old man creeping up on decrepitude I am the most possessive I have every been in my entire life. I love my small library, my computer, my camera, my library of music and photographs, my Internet connection and a few other small possessions which I'd miss terribly if they somehow were taken from me. Yet I know I'd not grieve for long. I've spent most of my life getting rid of possessions. I've always considered myself just a temporary custodian of possessions. I'm generous to a fault. If someone needs or wants something I have, I readily give it to them. I look for things that I know people would like just so I can give it to them. I get a great deal of pleasure out of it. Now what that makes me, I'm not sure. From one perspective, I'm a failure who never managed to acquire anything in life and moved from one empty place to another, yet from a slightly different perspective, I'm a lot like a monk walking the high road of poverty in that possessions have meant little to me and I'm fairly free of the yoke of owning things. In the latter sense I have far more freedom than most whom I meet in this journey. On Jul 28, 10:02 am, frantheman <[email protected]> wrote: > In the course of the recent discussion here concerning the reposting > of Minds Eye contributions in other internet fora, the question of > copyright arose. It got me to thinking about the idea of intellectual > ownership and the idea of possession in general. > > We have all seen the Westerns in which the Native Americans sold away > title to land for nothing, or pittances because the white man's > concept of "owning" land was incomprehensible to them. Throughout > history, many of those whom we regard as great thinkers have been very > critical of the benefits of possessions and owning things. Indeed, a > controversy centred on the absolute poverty of Christ raged throughout > the medieval Christian Church and completely split the Franciscan > movement (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ > Franciscans#Renewed_controversy_on_the_question_of_poverty). In this > context, it is perhaps interesting to note that one of the all-time > heroes here on Minds Eye, William of Occam, was a proponent of the > principle of absolute poverty and lost his job as English Franciscan > provincial and was excommunicated as a result. > > Personally I spent almost a decade as a Dominican friar, during which > time I took a "vow of poverty." I don't want to go into a discussion > on the extent to which Catholic monks actually live according to this > vow here, personally, I always found it to be the expression of an > attitude of freedom from a dictatorship of "things." It may also have > left an indelible mark on me in that in almost a quarter of a century > since leaving the order I have been pretty bad at earning, > accumulating and retaining material wealth and possessions. During my > life I have gone through a number of pretty radical changes, which > have often involved leaving nearly everything behind and starting > again. Such processes have been, inevitably, traumatic, although not > necessarily negative. One of the things that has helped is the fact > that I have never felt particularly attached to "things". But maybe my > sense of "ownership" is just underdeveloped, or damaged! > > There's a German saying which states that "he who has possessions has > worries." Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, one of the founders (!) of modern > anarchism went farther with his statement that "property is theft." > What does it mean to "own" something anyway? > > To use Molly's words: What do you think? > > Francis --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""Minds Eye"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Minds-Eye?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
