In my other article called "Nothing Lasts", I discussed how history has told us a lesson that human creations never last. People in the great empires like the Romans, the Ottoman, the Egyptians would never have thought that one day their powerful kingdoms will crumble. But all of them did - without fail. My friend Len said it concisely and nicely : "everything is transient". But he followed it up with an open question - what lesson can we learn from it?
I do not have the capacity to take this point further to any higher philosophical or spiritual discussion. However, I do have one worldly observation about this subject. That is: for us to stay sane, we should always be ready to let go.
Most of us human, including me, are born with the natural tendencies to obsess, to feel attached to something or someone. I believe people even confuse the meaning of attachment to another person as "love" - which is an example on how we can misuse and abuse a word. I believe attachment to someone has nothing to do with love, it has something to do with selfish interest. But I will leave it at that as I do not intend to elaborate about love.
We also attach ourselves to things - our house, our job title, our evening TV show, our video games, our snack, the favorite restaurant, and so on. I know many people who have a habit of keeping many things for sentimental reasons - even if those things have no use anymore. I work with many people who will do anything possible to keep their job the way it is, even if change will inevitably come. Some of us may know people who collects things, statuettes, cards, toys - and spend much of their precious times looking after them.
These obsessions do not only happen at individual level. We also see how countries fought for hundreds of years on a disputed region, despite the suffering of the people who are stuck in the middle. We also see how bad obsessions to religious teachings can effect the peacefulness of our world.
As a key point, I believe we should differentiate the meaning of "to possess" vs. "to own". People should take ownership of their work, of their family, of their society, of their environment, of their country. By taking ownership we bring our best to create, improve and develop something or someone. Those are the reasons we all progress as human. On the other hand, we should always remember that nothing lasts and therefore none of our creation is our possession. What we built is there to be replaced, revised, or destroyed for good reasons in the future.
One day new ideas make our work obsolete, or a person we know may no longer be there, or some old habits may no longer be doable. You'll never know when it will come, but I think the more we are ready to let go of our possessions and obsessions, the more we can appreciate them for what they are - something transient. And the more we do that, the easier and saner our life would be.
