Chap 21

The reading set forth a new concept to me that I felt was really thought-provoking, specifically in the final chapter of the assigned reading. The chapter discusses the concept of possession of a number of things, from one's own body to time and finally to random objects like boots. The discussion is based on the premise that humans do not actually own anything that they consider "theirs". Everyone labels things as "mine" and tries to claim ownership of everything, including their "own" bodies, where in fact the reading makes the point that a person does not actually own ANY of these objects, even their body. Because ultimately, everything that we "own" actually belongs to God (or consequently the Devil), because He is who actually created such things. All of their time, their souls, and their bodies ultimately will belong to either God in Heaven or the Devil in Hell. I felt this was a really interesting perspective that I have rarely if ever thought about. People often believe they can do whatever they want, from drugs to sex, because it's their body and they can do what they want with it. But ultimately, these things can be deemed wrong because it is not in fact their body, it's God's creation, and abusing substances can be considered harming God and his creation. Overall, I feel that people should really consider their actions and what they are doing to themselves and analyze what exactly gives them the right to do such damage to "their" body. Another interesting tangent to this point that I kind of thought about was how people tend to claim ownership over things like land and animals. For people will buy a plot of land and then say, "This is MY land". But who really gave them the power to OWN the land, and why exactly is it theirs? Because they paid a large sum of money to some other person? But what gave that person who sold the land the owernship and possession of the land? The same can go for animals and pets. What gives a person the ability to claim ownership and possession over another form of life? For example, why can a person claim that Lassie is THEIR dog? Anyway, I just felt like the reading had an interesting perspective about ownership and possession that was really thought-provoking. It kind of made me consider ownership from a quasi-Native American perspective...