Ownership

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We can own all kinds of possessions. From property like house and garden, to our car. From furniture to the clothes we wear. We can also own our actions and opinions. We can even patent our ideas. We create our own space and we may feel quite offended when someone oversteps the boundary.
But what about our pets? Do we own our pets? Are they our property, for us to do with as we please? Or trees? Or the wildlife that may visit our garden? Or people?

It may seem a bit absurd to bring it up. I suppose most people would agree that we can own ‘things’. Yet as soon as we start about living beings, things start to get complicated. And the more we can interact with that other being, the more grey the area of ownership tends to become.

Plants for instance, we can own. Yet when we state we own that big stand of old trees and therefore we can do with it as we please, chances are we are about to face an uproar from friend and foe alike. And our pets... We may have brought them into our lives paying a pretty penny for them; yet once there they tend to quickly become our companion rather than our property.

To take it one step further ~ the time we have with our children is borrowed. We as adults are there to teach and encourage them, to help them discover what they are all about and where their passion may be found. Once on their way, they quickly become independent beings, owned by no-one but themselves.

People should not aim to own other people. To tie them down, and to force them in to something that they are not.

And as obvious as that is ~ it makes me think about ownership form a different perspective.
Is there any way in which we can benefit from ownership of whatever possession, just for the sake of owning it?
Or is it in reality all about enjoying the company of an energy that we have brought into our lives; even when it is about a car or a couch?
That would imply that both have something to offer to the other.

So for instance when we look at our car ~ the car offers us a mode of transportation, and depending on the weather, shelter. In turn we provide it with the gasoline and maintenance it needs. And as long as both sides serve each other ~ one could even say there is a respectful, balanced relationship going on between the car and the person; the owner.

I guess that is more important as it seems that even ownership is a ‘two-way-street’.
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