Internship Paper No. 1- Possession and Love

Ireland, home of the culchie

      "Sans Terre"- without land. Thoreau says that may be the place of the vagabonds in the language of people who lived in houses. It is obvious, maybe, that this is a misguided and sheltered point of view. Anyone who wanders around has more connection than someone that lives his life in the opposite of exploration. I have an acquaintance who lived for seven years on the streets. Those were the happiest days, he says, and only paying off school bills causes him to remain in one spot with a steady job now.

     Vagabonds are not without land, for all of it is theirs. Possession is a strange idea. People claim that objects and places are theirs, they want sole ownership and dominion. But those same people disappear without a trace after a few decades, leaving behind those possessions for someone else to claim.

     Possession is not love, and causes the “owner” to think only about themselves, and not about that which they claim to care about. Possession means that someone is possessed (not that being claimed) with an illusion. The owner may care for their property, but only so that it reflects well on them, so that they can get what they want out of the deal.

     Love is not possession. Love is not taming, or coddling, or holding back. “I would I were your bird!” Romeo says to Juliet.

     “Sweet, so would I. But I should kill thee with much cherishing.”

     Ah, is this love? He kills himself for her, and with the loss of his life, she thinks hers has ended as well. Lovers always promise to die for what they love and give up themselves. That isn't love. That is juvenile obsession. True love would not need to promise death, but life!

     But we do promise death- the lack of soul and wildness is death. To the land we claim, to the bodies we are clothed in that want to beautify, we promise slavery. We do not love our bodies or the land. Though we claim possession, our care is only an a cover-up. If we loved our bodies, we would not starve them to attain an ideal, we would not try to improve ourselves in superficial ways. If we loved our bodies, we would want them to live wild. We would not try to tame one another if we felt true love, rather than possession.

     Our bodies are earths, an old cliché analogy, but one that has truth. We do find similarities in our treatment of each. We build up the land we claim, making it work for what we want, try to cover up imperfections. We have no regard for whether the land is healthy.

     If humans knew love, they would know not to kill with much cherishing. If humans were not afraid of giving up possessions, they would know that the vagabond is not without land. Jean Paul Sartre, famous philospher and author, said, "We are possessed by the things we possess. When I like an object, I always give it to someone. It isn't generosity- it's only because I want others to be enslaved by objects, not me." Cynical and humourous, but it gets the point across.

     Lack of possession doesn't mean that people should feel separation and independence from the earth, that they are above the earth. It means that people should feel like welcome guests in a generous house, not like an owner of a foreign slave. The realization of love, instead of dominance, would lead to people protecting the giving land. Right now we lock ourselves and our home in a birdcage, jealous of freedom, demanding song.

Romeo and Juliet, Act 2 Scene 2

Juliet: ...I would have thee gone:
And yet no further than a wanton's bird;
Who lets it hop a little from her hand,
Like a poor prisoner in his twisted gyves,
And with a silk thread plucks it back again,
So loving-jealous of his liberty.