I asked a question to a group of students one day and after the response, i have been asking it ever since. What is your greatest possession? The latest group I asked this to was a younger group in one of the discussion panels i like to attend. I was extremely surprised by the answers and then wondered how an older group would respond. So, without giving the exact location of your 1st copy of the Mona Lisa, what would you deem as your most prized possession?
If you mean material possessions, I own nothing of great value and have nothing that can't easily be replaced. I used to have some treasured possessions, but 9 years ago I got rid of almost everything I owned and made a new start in life. I value having somewhere to live, but I don't own my home. I value some of the abilities I possess and my outlook on life. I now have no desire for any possessions that I can't use or don't need.
@Ruth Belena - I envy you. I've got far too much "stuff" and I really want to cut down on my possessions but I tend to get far too sentimental about things. It doesn't help that we've been living in the same house for far too long, so I've never needed to sort out the clutter from the things I actually want. Now we're planning to move and I don't know where to start. It's difficult to say what my greatest possession is. Perhaps my bonsai trees, if those count as things, but I could never choose just one. But if I really sat down to think about this, I'm sure I could come up with some items of sentimental value that matter just as much.
Let's see, there is my family's bible from 1820. I think that the pictures of my two sons, and my husband are my most precious items. Now that they are all gone, those pictures bring forth a lot of great memories. But, if I had to grab just one thing in the event of a fire, it would be my little furbaby Izzy Royal.
@Ina I. Wonder - I'm not sure that your furbaby really counts. To my way of thinking Izzy Royal is a member of your family, not a possession.
I had to wait for a while just to see what folks might come up with. Possessions are a funny thing. Some people believe they own their spouse, as in, "he or she is mine, or belongs to me." That was one that kind of stuck with a couple of perople I heard from. Understanding that one cannot own anything with thought is, for some reason, hard to philosophically or psychologically take in. We can direct, help train, teach, and listen to it, but we cannot own thought, ergo: We cannot own the person whose very thoughts we cannot control much less own. I love my wife dearly, but her thoughts belong to her so how can I possess or own her. Mostly though, a lot of people view some of their material wealth as their most prized items of possession, and rightfully so for who am I to judge another persons thoughts? And, I certainly cannot utter nor gauge the values placed upon the Rembrandt they keep hidden under the house or their pet rock in the back of the closet? (you didn't think I knew where the pet rock was did you?) The ones that surprised me the most were some studious teens who claimed to have nothing but what what they viewed in a figurative, *mirror.* Those are the ones that I know will go through life with the knowledge that whatever can be destroyed cannot be truely owned. The best we can be is to be good stewards of what we claim to possess, and as a good steward it is our character and integrity that stand out as our Greatest possession. The ability to know that we all have been given a gift of "being" whereby we can build anything and do whatever we set ourselves to do. So, in closing I guess, in my most humble opinion, my greatest and most prized possession is..........me. Just a child of God....me.
Other than my photo albums, my most prized possessions would be my book collection and my hand-made items, like quilts and cross-stitch pieces. I've always had a love of books and have collected them since I was a teenager. All of my allowance went towards books. I have some old ones (but not valuable) and a bunch of nice leather-bound first editions (again, not valuable), but I just love seeing them and re-reading them. One of my proudest accomplishments is that I passed my love of reading and books on to my son, who is PhD candidate in Philosophy and has started his own collection of philosophical works. He was complaining the other day that he just filled up his fourth bookcase and needed to go get another one! The hand-made items are like remembrances of times, places and people. I remember what I was doing, where I was living, what was going on in my life while I made them, when I see them, and they can't be replaced.