Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Obssessive about Possessing

"Possession"...I stumbled across this word by chance when I read about "Firebolt" being one of Harry Potter's most prized possessions in the Goblet of Fire. Back then my vocabulary wasn't even sound enough to understand what "vocabulary" meant! So obviously I would read my favorite book series with a dictionary by my side... Even so, the dictionary's description never revealed the true application of this word. With time however, it became evident that people rarely use it as a noun...its verb and adjective forms are so much more popular...and that too not with objects but regarding subjects!

Developing philosophies about life come at a very late stage, but what every person learns in the first 20 years of life is that you can't change anyone's nature. The less you hope to do that with someone, the less naive you stay and the more at peace are your relations with everyone who matters. So its pretty much around the first time you move out of "home sweet home", that you realize that 'nature' is what governs even one's artificiality!!! And the urge to possess stems from this basic human nature.

This urge soon matures into an obsession for many, when situations presents some forlorn subject of interest! Some people fight against it but most people find it intriguing...the exhibition of jealousy...possessiveness...the need to control... Its seen in mothers, fathers, siblings and friends. We all know how it feels to be on the receiving end of a possessive behavior and we all know how mildly amusing or thoroughly irritating it could be! But what we never marvel upon is that what encourages such behavior?!?
It can't just be the simple need to own...it can't only be the insecurities or lack of trust...it can't just be 'nature'! If everyone exhibits it, then there has to be a reasonable explanation for it...more potent and more satisfying than just 'nature'!

How come people try to possess other people and their emotions? How come it is forgotten that possessing is to do with inanimate objects and not with people,throbbing with life and energy? Personally I am a materialistic individual...possessions mean all the worldly treasures to me, no matter how grand or how inexpensive. But I have always considered human spirit to be boundless...one can't dream to possess it...one can only dream to know it in all its imperfections and one can only hope to achieve exclusivity with some of the pleasures a dedicated spirit can bestow upon one...
What I don't understand is how and why, people still dare to hope that they can possess another's mind and heart and actions and affections! Any feeble attempt to understand this obsession with possessing usually fizzles out even before it can illuminate the nook and cranny of human psyche in which the answer may be hidden...

Still brooding over it does explain one thing...one craves to possess what one desires! It may not be the tendency to control and own but the primal need to be owned and to belong to someone that makes people possessive...that makes people want to have someone feeling possessive for them!