Land

Isn't it paradoxical that human beings are willing to die and kill over artificial land boundaries while they defile the very land they contest with artillery, land mines and careless pollution? This is instinct over intellect in action. All wars are blatant, intentional examples of  inhumanity.

The Israel-Palestine conflict is a glaring example of racism and religion in symphony to breed hatred and stupidity. By investing land, which is a totally neutral substance, with symbolic value, the inhabitants of that region are living unnecessarily diminished lives every day. Generations have participated in the voluntary sado-masochism of that conflict in the name of holy rights of possession.

This past week, Queen Elizabeth II of England visited Dublin in a regal gesture of conciliatory largess. To the credit of the Irish Republicans, they graciously humored the walking anachronism, despite centuries of colonial oppression by her predecessors. The Queen, however, did not hand over the keys to the rest of the Irish island, as obvious a boundless natural formation as could exist.

Possession breeds suffering unless tempered with an acknowledgment of its folly. We possess nothing ultimately...not even ourselves. The instinctive impulses to nest, build shelter and then fortify it are often at odds with our cognitive desires to seek peaceful happiness in the company of our fellow human beings. Opening the mind is a way of keeping narrowing possessiveness in check.