My and Mine

                I love maps. All kinds of maps of all sorts of places! As children my siblings and I would play the ‘Find Country X’ game on our world map placemats at mealtime.  Recently I found an old globe that we used to play such a game and was studying it when a thought came to me: every country has a border and people within that border claiming that territory.  I began to think about what it means to own something. Whether that is land, cars, a house, computers, ideas, and feelings even.  The words ‘my and mine’ kept resonating the next few days as I would talk about ‘MY car’ or ‘MY idea.’

We’ve all heard, “The best things in life are free.” This is true to some extent, but also the best things in life cannot be possessed. If they are then everyone cannot enjoy them.  The English poet Tennyson talks about his encounter with a flower:

                                Flower in a crannied wall,

                                I pluck you out of the crannies,

                                I hold you here, root and all, in my hand,

Little flower- but if I could understand

What you are, root and all, and all in all…

Erich Fromm argues that Tennyson’s need for the possession of knowledge has destroyed the aesthetic appeal of the flower.  It was unearthed and the beauty will wither away much more quickly and with fewer appreciators than if it had simply been observed without the need for possession.

                I have come to the conclusion that nothing really is mine.  I get to use certain things for the next 60 years or so but then what? Unless I am an ancient Egyptian Pharaoh, which I am not, I cannot take it with me into the afterlife. I am simply a steward that takes care of things, so why should I be attached to them?  In order to change this mindset I have attempted to stop using singular possessive pronouns. As a result, life has been fuller. It no longer becomes about the need to have or achieve something but simply Be, as Fromm would put it.

                Music, for example, has been extremely deep lately.  As I listen I often lose track of the time and have spent an hour simply being still and listening to this work of art someone has composed.  I have no desire to be anywhere or do anything. Simply enjoy the moment with God. 

                Empirical existence (life) is short. Go out and do things that matter rather than attempt to accumulate the finite. You will find that empirical existence is more beautiful than you ever thought possible.