OWNERSHIP Does the physical acquisition and a condition of holding materials constitute wealth?
We use the term: “Losers, weepers; “finders keepers.” We speak of “gathering in the sheaves”,”bringing home the bacon”, and other such folksy-sounding maxims which suggest that “possession is”, indeed, about “nine-tenths” of ownership.
Certainly many people think that to be true. Some seem to think the world, indeed, owes them such a living and they purposely learn acquire possessions and call such items wealth. We all know persons we consider to be greedy in that they would assume, naturally, that every shoulder and berm on every highway provided road-kill items just for them. Some item are not worth keeping. There is a vast difference between “aroma” and “odor”, between ”smell” and “stink as any able-beaked buzzard could tell you.
Human collectors can become that sort of person. They show sure sign of doing so when they start to haunt yard sales, garage, patio, driveway and just sale-sales to buy all sort of items strewn along the leftover berm of some wreaked households. They agree that “all that glitters is not gold “contending it may be “silver”, instead. They buy anything and everything which can be fitted into their attic or basement ”Plunder Room”.
In recent months we have witnessed countless wildfires raging through thousands of acres of forests and grasslands. Many homes are lost in such senseless fire each year yet people still think of such forested areas as personal property. They claim ownership or vast panoramas of Nature's finest but do not accept the duties of proper care. The can prove ownership of vast areas by showing pieces of paper authentically inscribed signatures applied but they cannot tell you what the term “back to wilderness” mean today in regard to forrest fire presence. Such wealth can be lost in a few hours. Owning a forest and allowing it to go back into a wilderness state can prove to be a tragic loss. The prying winds, such as the Santa Anna, can sift and stir and dry the of mated leaves, twigs, branches, fallen trees and dying one – all of the accumulation a resplendent forest can build. Low growth must thrive as well, as pasture for small, then larger creatures. The combination is required, not just endless tree-after-tree-after-tree.
Possession is but a way station in life. Only in their proper use do they become wealth.
A.L.M. November 26, 2005 [c418wds]
