[Soil & Land - VII]
Ownership of land is a curious notion. Ownership is permanent, meaning I legally possess it as far into the future as my life continues. And then, in a way, it remains “mine" insofar as my kin maintain possession.
But if I look backward, into the past, say 75 years, I find a few other owners that are unrelated to me. Far enough back and it stops being owned at all. It was merely accessed. Used. Traversed. Gleaned from.
Something changed with the land I own the moment someone decided it would be parceled out and legally possessed.
The minerals, moister levels, and organic matter of the soil didn’t change. Sure, trees were harvested, but others grew back. And the topography remained the same. So, what changed?
As soon as something is considered “own-able” it is also considered “take-able.” In other words, ownership and stealing necessarily emerge at the same time. They conceptually require each other. Something we consider to be good—the legal buying and selling of land—comes with a dark side: what can be owned can also be taken.
Not all virtue is free of vice.
