Winning Words 5/5/09
“Do you think the land has no feelings? I saw a building plot die of shame at being put up for sale like a slave with a price tied round his neck.” (Dom Helder Camara) This causes me to wonder if the foreclosed homes and the shuttered factories and the land which is called, Detroit, have feelings. Are humans the only ones with feelings? ;-) Jack

FROM N.L. IN FLORIDA: I always felt sorry for cars, boats, homes, factories etc., but not empty fields who where allowed to grow free. FROM JACK: There's talk of turning some of the empty blocks in the city of Detroit back to farm fields or into tree farms. I wonder how the land feels about that. REPLY FROM N.L.: THAT'S WHAT I WOULD WANT IF I WERE LAND. "GREAT IDEA"

FROM OUTHOUSE JUDY: I once read a story about trees who screamed as they were cut down. Only one man could hear the sound and he, of course, went crazy. No, I don't think inanimate things have feelings, but I do believe the people who lived, worked, cried, laughed, raised children, painted, decorated, planted, and died in the buildings....do. Therefore, they do live through memories! FROM JACK: I wonder if outhouses have feelings.

FROM GOOD DEBT JON: I could be ready to argue either side of this. But I am leaning your way. The quick answer is no. But we do attribute a lot human attributes to land, home and factories. We love it, tax it, regulate it, we care for land and buildings, houses, we fight for land, divorce/foreclose it and sue for possession, not unlike child custody. Some times we abuse and hurt the land with toxic chemicals, just like many do with their own bodies. We revere some land and buildings more than others as we do one class,
ideology, or color of people over another. Some land is dependent on the government and we see the effects of welfare as it infects both human and real property and like swine flu has now migrated to business as a carrier. Now we are ascribing human characteristics to GM and Chrysler the question is are we feeding them or teaching them to fish? So as a believer in Austrian Theory Economics the answer is no. As a songwriter who just wrote "Least Momma Died Before Elvis" (for Mothers Day),a dad, son, husband and taxpayer
and voter; I can tell you I wept a little last week when I drove by my childhood home. Maybe the answer is land makes us feel. And if you don't think an unfeeling thing can make you feel then you have just never met
Katie Pendergast (from my 8th grade class) FROM JACK: My childhood home has been torn down, and now the land has been made into a parking lot. I wonder how the land feels about that? In the glory days, it was probably a pasture. And before that, it was in the mind of God when he said, "let there be dry land," or words to that effect.

FROM L.P. IN MICHIGAN: I once apologized to a dress at the store because I chose another one to be my Easter dress. I didn't want it to feel bad that it didn't get picked. MORE FROM LP.: Ironically
anthropomorphism is something I have tried for many years to "grow out of". Though it's helpful in the sense of reducing, reusing and recycling because I'm sad to think of my belongings rotting in a dump-yard crying of neglect. Of course I was also sad when I thought how my couch went to the Salvation Army store near campus
because that is probably where the frat houses get their porch couches. (I patted it apologetically as they hauled it - unceremoniously - out the door... shhhhh)

FROM MOLINER C.F.: I think humans own the shame for what happens to the land.

FROM M.L. IN ILLINOIS: well, i believe that the spirit that dwells within all structures feels the shame that is put upon it. REPLY FROM JACK: I'll have to think about that. It sounds like animism. Plato, Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas thought about it, too. MORE FROM M.L.: all is god's creation whether animate or in...we cannot survive without the generousity of the inanimate. happy contemplating plato!

FROM A.W. IN ILLINOIS: with all the strange stuff going out on e-mails, it is refreshing to get something to think about. Decatur has many homes boarded up, waiting for destruction. Someone should go around and
paint a sad, crying face on the plywood covering the windows. Surely the happy memories in that house have saturated the walls.