This is MY stuff!
Monday, April 26th, 2004In the end, there is only one thing we own. There is only one thing that is truly ours. It is easy to recognize that “you can’t take it with you,” but we don’t even have it right now. We can say we own this or that, but the truth be know, we are more just in custody of the stuff we have. We can also say, “This is my land. That is yours.” This “ownership” is only a temporary state. Our sense of ownership is supported by the laws we work under. We agree that once you buy something it is yours and if I were to steal it there would be consequences. On a much larger scale there are agreements which say where one country ends and another begins. All of this can change without our consent. Look at the strife happening all over the world. In conflict the size and shape of countries can change quickly. What was once “owned” by one is now “owned” by another. We don’t even own our own bodies. We can be injured or imprisoned, with out just cause. We would like to hope that there would be mechanisms that protect our rights (read stuff), but these can fail or be replaced.
The only thing we truly own is our choices. Even if we are imprisoned and our options are taken away, we still have the choice of how we are going to respond. In the end, we can’t completely control our stuff, our land, or our situation. The only we can control is how we choose to respond. We can choose how to act, what we think, and the disposition we take. Our choice exists first in our heart, mind, soul. That can’t be taken away form us without also taking our lives. The only thing we own are the choices we make. Do we choose to act with love, hold grudges, or make ourselves better people? Or, do we committee the ultimate sin against our free will and simply not choose? In my mind it is much worse to surrender our choice than make a choice that in the end we regret. Our free will is the greatest gift we have ever been given, because it is the only thing we can truly own. Our ability to choose is sacred. The stuff we own and the stories we tell are not who we are. We are the choices we make. It is only in the choices we make can we say who we are and what we believe. And I don’t mean just the big choices of job, where we live, and who we marry. Every choice we make. The things we buy. The music we listen to. The way we drive. How we interact with a stranger on the street. Every choice we make is one more instance when we put our imprimatur on our lives, stating what we believe and ultimately who we are.
Think about what you could accomplish if you were to devote 200 eight-hour days to, say, learning a foreign language.