"Ownership. Property. This is mine. This is yours. Do you think you
own anything? You don’t. Ownership is an illusion. So is property. Why?
Because all the things you use are only used by you temporarily before
they are passed on or thrown away. Be it food, clothing, cars, property,
furniture, cell phones, air, water. You never say to anyone ‘Don’t
breathe here! This air is mine!’. Of course not. Air is still free, and
no one claims to own it. Water is also in a large degree free, but is
becoming more and more privatized. Food, clothing, cars and land has
become utterly privatized. Still. You don’t, and never will own anything
of it.
You use it.
You don’t own it.
At best, all you can say about ownership is that ‘this is in my
possession now and as long as I am using it’. That is the most
‘ownership’ there is. Everything that you ‘own’ is only ‘yours’
temporarily. It is only borrowed or rented. Your food goes into you and
comes out again. So does the water. Even your body is on loan. When you
die it goes back into the circulation. Ownership is an illusion. Still,
it’s an illusion bought by humanity. But it is no more than an agreement
that say’s that ‘ok, we will have a system here that gives some the
right to claim vast resources of the planet for themselves, while others
get nothing’." http://www.theresourcebasedeconomy.com/2010/12/you-never-really-own-anything/
In an hour, when the time changes from 8:59 to 9:00, the "ownership" of Myrah Farm officially transfers from Sherman Myrah to Jon and Teri Jenkins on paper. Nothing else changes. We continue to steward the property that we have come to love over the past 14 months, and become a piece of the history of this place, which will be carried into the future and stewarded by someone else when we are gone.
I've been thinking a lot about ownership and possession a lot this week. It's a human social construct that really means nothing. I believe that we can't really ever own anything, that we just use it for a time and it's our duty to take the best care of it that we can. It's why I believe in certified organic production, it's why we plant trees and tend our property, it's what drives us to do the best that we can and make decisions in the best interest of the long-term for this little piece of prairie paradise.
The better half of Myrah Farm went back into the earth two months ago on April 30th, which was a hard lesson in ownership. There was nothing we could do about it but figure out a way to move forward. Someone owning the buildings didn't stop fire from taking them. We do our best, but can't argue with the natural order and mother nature's prerogative.
So, when the time changes to 9:00 this morning, we officially take this farm under our wing and take responsibility for doing the best we can to steward the land into the future. We are endlessly proud to be able to be here, to have this beautiful piece of property and most of all, the relationships that have come from it. Sherman and Sheri are like family and we are grateful for every moment that we have them, and this farm, in our lives. We look forward to a long future together, and I thank you, reader, for being interested in following our farming journey into it's next chapter!
