The Illusion of Ownership!

Lately, there is a video circulating on social media. It’s a profoundly striking piece of content reminding us that the house you work so hard to own today will become a shelter for complete strangers a hundred years from now, and when that day comes, no one will even remember your name.

For a long time now, I’ve been reflecting on the compromises we make just to “own” things in this life, and I find myself returning to this theme in my writings from time to time.

Human beings have an insatiable urge to possess. First, it’s a house, a car, then another house, a summer home, perhaps yet another property… Because humans long to feel safe, and our most primitive instinct equates possession with security. We crave protection. Of course, there are exceptions; but this piece isn’t about those exceptions. It’s about those who constantly seek safety outside of themselves, anchored purely in the material world.

The physical dimension of this journey we call life operates through a body that is merely on loan to us. And there will come a day when this loan must be returned—whether sooner or later, suddenly or expectedly. When the time comes, every single one of us will give this borrowed body back. If this cycle is so inevitable for us all, I ask you: what is it that makes this obsession with security so vital?

Naturally, I also value having a sanctuary to call home in this world, and having the resources necessary to keep pace with what life demands, and I fulfill my responsibilities toward that end. Yet, I genuinely struggle to comprehend the sheer greed for “more.” Why ten houses instead of one? Why more vehicles, why more land? Why this desperate struggle to leave so much behind for those who come after us? When our lives and our bodies are only ours for a brief moment, why do we burden this borrowed life with so much weight?

The world is a vast playground. Why don’t we choose to use our resources to see more of it, to touch more lives, to witness the earth’s beauty, to rescue an animal from a shelter, to make children smile, or to bring joy to others? Why is our appetite never satisfied? When our time is up and we move on, what possible comfort can owning ten houses bring to our souls?

Moreover, this same desire for ownership taints our relationships. It begins in the name of love, but almost immediately, we want to possess the other person, to anchor them down. Why can’t we move through this life without trying to own someone, allowing them to just be free? In reality, the only thing we need to feel truly safe is ourselves. Neither our material wealth nor another breath beside us can save us on their own.

When we look at the flow of life, we know as clearly as our own names that what we call security is here one moment and gone the next. What exists today may easily vanish tomorrow.

Yet, for the sake of that illusion of safety, we continue to squander our time, our own resources, the spaces of others, and most tragically, the resources of our planet. As humans, we somehow feel entitled to destroy everything else just for our own comfort and our desperate need for security.

Perhaps we should stop accumulating everything and simply learn to pass through this life. After all, at the end of the road, everything returns to its source; all that will remain is the essence of how we lived this borrowed life.

With love,

Nazan

If These Piece had a Color : It would be ”Terracotta”.