catapult magazine

We own. It’s the Texas thing to do. But we also feel that it encourages us to take more responsibility for our house and yard. Like in Nehemiah when the people repair the parts of the Jerusalem wall near where they live.

The problem is that we can start to think we actually own this place. It’s absurd really. I can’t own a tree. What would that even mean—pretending to control who can access my tree? Why would someone want to do that?

I suppose there is something to the idea of desiring solitude. People buy ranches so they can get away. They own the ranches so no one else will be able to bother them. The need for solitude is valid, but I’m not sure land ownership is a great solution for that problem.

On the other hand, land ownership does seem to be a pretty good solution for people who need some reason to feel responsible for their land.

In Texas land is cheap. But it’s just more to mow.

Thanks for the Max Lerner quote.

Sam’s referring to today’s daily asterisk quote:

The critical question is not whether the small town can be rehabilitated in the image of its earlier strength and growth—for clearly it cannot—but whether American life will be able to evolve any other integral community to replace it. This is what I call the problem of place in America, and unless it is somehow resolved, American life will become more jangled and fragmented than it is, and American personality will continue to be unquiet and unfulfilled.

Max Lerner
America as a Civilization (1957)