Chapter 142
Section 142 of It Can Be Done. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Read by Carl Thomas. It Can Be Done by Joseph Morris and St. Clair Adams.
Ownership. The true value of anything lies not in the object itself or in its legal possession, but in our attitude to it. we may own a thing in fee simple yet derive from it nothing but vexation for those who have little as indeed for those who have much there are no surer means of happiness than enjoying that which they do not possess emerson shows us that two harvests may be gathered from every field a
material one by the man who raised the crop and an aesthetic or spiritual one by whosoever can see Beauty or thrill with an inner satisfaction. They ride in Packards, those swell guys, While I can't half-afford a Ford. Choice fillets fill a void for them,
Weave cheese and prunes the place I bored. They've smirking servants hanging round, You'd guess by whom my shoes are shined, But all the same I'm rich as they, For ownership's a state of mind.
They own, you say? Sure, they possess. What a fellow has, has him. The rich can't stop and just enjoy. Their lawns and shrubs in house fronts trim.
They're tied indoors and foot the bills. I stroll or stay as I'm inclined. Possession was not meant for use, But ownership's a state of mind. The folks who have must try to keep
Against the thieves who swarm and steal. They dare not stride, they mince along. Their pavements a banana peel. who owns the jeweler or i yon gems by window bars confined possession lies in locks and keys true ownership's a state of mind i own my office i've a boss but so have all men so has he the business is not mine but yet i own the whole blamed company stockholders are less proud than i when competition's old lang syne
what care i that the profits theirs i have what counts an owner's mind the pretty girls i meet are mine i do not choose to tell them so i own the flowers the trees the birds i own the sunshine and the snow i own the block i own the town the smiles the songs of humankind for ownership is how you feel it's just a healthy state of mind St. Clair Adams End of section 142
