Lines on the Earth

So the big push at the office today is subdivisions. “Get’em done” is the word that has come down from on high, so the other worker bees and I drone on.

But while I’m processing the value effect (or non-effect) of who did what to Lot A, Block B, Part C, DL D, PLAN E PID F in the required drone like fashion, I wonder: What right do we have to place these imaginary lines on the earth?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not hugging a tree, weeping for Mother Earth while praying to the goddess with my mouth full of granola while I type this. But here we are carving up imaginary chunks of the very earth we walk on in our self important fashion, as if it mattered in the grand scheme of things.

But think about this: if a tornado were to land right now, and let’s all hope it doesn’t, it wouldn’t stick to Lot A, Block B, Part C, DL D, PLAN E PID F – in fact it would put parts of Lot A, Block B, Part C, DL D, PLAN E PID F right on top of Lot G, Block H, Part I, DL J, PLAN K PID L. Those tornadoes, and weather phenomenon in general, have absolutely no respect for the laws laid down by humanity.

Our society, all societies seemingly, are about ownership (and don’t get me wrong, I’m trying to sell my house to buy another house like a good little capitalist). I own this. You own that. I will trade this for that. It’s what keeps us busy so that we don’t turn our full attention as a species to destroying each other. Most days I’m happy to work the system – frankly I like stuff – but today, and its these bloody subdivision, my mind is doing one of its rare deeper looks at something I deal with everyday.

When God told us to be stewards of the earth (I used to think it was Stuart’s of the earth, so I was always jealous of guy’s named Stuart) I’m pretty sure He didn’t mean to go forth and carve the earth up in to parcels and lots, and bequeath unto the father his parcel, and unto the son his lot, and at the end of the day all of the earth shall be as one cell in the body of the Kingdom of Man on earth. But then again, who knows? Maybe He did.

Maybe lots of land are like people, individually they mean one thing, but put in a group or crowd they become less but again something more. Maybe the earth weeps when Doreen over at the land title office processes another subdivision because we have taken another piece for our own devices. Maybe land likes feeling useful and needed! Maybe I’m full of shit. Okay, no maybe on that one.

Okay at the heart of it, this is a semi-eloquent dissertation on why I don’t really feel like doing subdivisions. I might as well get to work and start following the mandate delivered from on high:

Go Forth and Subdivide.