Ursula K. Le Guin's book 'The Dispossessed' is one of the best novels I've ever read. The titular comment comes from this passage:
“You are rich. You own. We are poor. We lack. You have. We do not have. Everything is beautiful here, only not the faces. On Anarres nothing is beautiful, nothing but the faces. The other faces. The men and women. We have nothing but that, nothing but each other. Here you see the jewels. There you see the eyes. And in the eyes you see the splendor, the splendor of the human spirit, because our men and women are free possessing nothing. They are free. And you, the possessors are possessed. You are all in jail, each alone, solitary with a heap of what he owns. You live in prison, die in prison. It is all I can see in your eyes, the wall, the wall.”
It's ironic that I post this quote in the same month as posting pictures of some really nice cars. There is a good point to this though. There's nothing wrong with possessing things; we live in a world where we have to possess a certain amount of stuff just to get on with our lives. The point is not to let your possessions possess you. Like, don't get a car you can't afford; don't get that expensive car if it's going to take over your life - possess you - and make you depressed and worried trying to pay it off and keep it protected. You simply don't need those luxury possessions; they're nice to have if you can afford them well within your means, and if becoming unpossessed of them isn't going to cause angst or heartache.
Image: Ursula K. Le Guin - The Dispossessed
“You are rich. You own. We are poor. We lack. You have. We do not have. Everything is beautiful here, only not the faces. On Anarres nothing is beautiful, nothing but the faces. The other faces. The men and women. We have nothing but that, nothing but each other. Here you see the jewels. There you see the eyes. And in the eyes you see the splendor, the splendor of the human spirit, because our men and women are free possessing nothing. They are free. And you, the possessors are possessed. You are all in jail, each alone, solitary with a heap of what he owns. You live in prison, die in prison. It is all I can see in your eyes, the wall, the wall.”
It's ironic that I post this quote in the same month as posting pictures of some really nice cars. There is a good point to this though. There's nothing wrong with possessing things; we live in a world where we have to possess a certain amount of stuff just to get on with our lives. The point is not to let your possessions possess you. Like, don't get a car you can't afford; don't get that expensive car if it's going to take over your life - possess you - and make you depressed and worried trying to pay it off and keep it protected. You simply don't need those luxury possessions; they're nice to have if you can afford them well within your means, and if becoming unpossessed of them isn't going to cause angst or heartache.
Image: Ursula K. Le Guin - The Dispossessed
