This is something I wrote on July 13, 2009.  It was from a creative prompt in one of my writers’ groups, and the prompt was the word “own”.

What do we really own? At my job they say, “Own your spill.” or “Own your mess.”, as in if it’s yours, or you saw it, you fix it or clean it up. I can agree with that. But people will say , “my dog” or “my boyfriend” but do these really BELONG to us?

A pet is a living creature dependent upon us for survival, but it still has some measure of free will and will not always behave as you would want. I, and many people I know, can honestly tell you that even when you say “my spouse”, there is no ownership. Maybe such things would last longer if there was!

We mortgage houses, take out loans on cars, “own” so many things due to the wonderful world of credit. These can be taken away from us, however. Just like loves, and pets, jobs, etc., all of these can be removed from our “possession”. What do we really own?

I suppose all we can really ever own is the responsibility for our actions, the choices we make to be a better person or not. To leave the world and life itself better than we found it or not. All we can really ever own might only be our ideals.