Thank you so much for helping me to think about land ownership in a different way! I feel in my bones that I belong to the land, rather than the other way around, but I’d never stopped to think about all of the ways in which the system of land ownership causes and perpetuates so much of both the ecological harm and social injustice in our world. Your invitation to imagine a different possibility is so beautiful. It’s easy to get hung up on the barriers to change and put off the imagining until some future time when the barriers are gone, but of course, without a world in mind to strive toward, we aren’t likely to do the hard work of removing barriers and dismantling harmful systems. This is such a beautiful and thought-provoking piece, Priscilla, and I’m so glad to have read it!
Thanks so much for this, Priscilla. I think about the same issue, and how it has extended from land to water. I really appreciate the references and footnotes.
Literally as I was reading this, an email arrived in my inbox announcing that Lyla June will be speaking right here at our Whidbey Island Center for the Arts on Friday!
Great food for thought, Priscilla! Do you live on Maui now? We are going to be there April 28 through May 5. My sister has lived on Maui since 1996 and is a victim of the housing shortage crisis. She is now looking for another place to rent as her landlord is selling the house she’s renting a room in. I would love to get in touch with you to do a story about land use and housing on Maui when we arrive. A friend, John Lovie, forwarded me your blog after reading an article of mine about Lyla June’s upcoming lecture. Kate Poss, thisiswhidbey.com
Priscilla, I can't tell you how much I enjoyed reading this -- twice! It does my heart and head good to see all these ideas laid out so clearly. Sometimes (often) I feel I'm just mucking around with something so airy fairy and unreachable it seems silly to be spending so much time on it. But then I read this and think, "Yes! This is it exactly!" You explained John Locke's ideas wonderfully, and it's immensely frustrating to have read his writing on property and realize how much of our laws *and the dominant societal sense of self as "individual owners or strivers to own property"* are based on such a crumbling sand castle of ideas. There's no there-there.
Loved watching that webinar on un-propertying land alongside you! And really glad we're mucking around with these incredibly important ideas together. 💪💚
Great ideas! It's hard to imagine our system changing, yet the practice of imagining is necessary for us to improve our world. Climate leader Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson suggests being guided by love and by possibility, rather than hope: https://onbeing.org/programs/ayana-elizabeth-johnson-what-if-we-get-this-right/. I like that framing. She suggests that we start by focusing on our love for what it is we want to save. By asking the question, “What if we get this right?” we can focus on possibility — and even learn to love the future.
Pricilla, this piece filled in so many gaps in my understanding of land ownership, enclosure of the commons, and possibilities for the future. I’ve been really compelled by the ideas in Antonia Malchik’s newsletter, but feel like I connect with them poetically, without being able to wrap my mind around what it means pragmatically. Your piece fit like a puzzle piece into what I was struggling to grasp. I’m sure I’ll be returning to it.
I feel like there’s so much power in inviting people to imagine, to desire, a different way of being in the world. It’s so wonderful to see so many of us exercising the unique capacity of our own voice to extend the invitation. Thank you so much for this piece
Shaina, I’m so delighted to hear this! Researching and pulling it together was helpful for me too. Before, I had the impression that our landowning system just kind of “developed,” the way things do over time. But when I learned how brazenly the system was designed by a few men to cement the wealth of their class, I saw just how arbitrary the rules are—and therefore how they can be changed. Yes, invitations galore to envision a better world! And help bring it about! Thanks for being here.
Thank you so much for helping me to think about land ownership in a different way! I feel in my bones that I belong to the land, rather than the other way around, but I’d never stopped to think about all of the ways in which the system of land ownership causes and perpetuates so much of both the ecological harm and social injustice in our world. Your invitation to imagine a different possibility is so beautiful. It’s easy to get hung up on the barriers to change and put off the imagining until some future time when the barriers are gone, but of course, without a world in mind to strive toward, we aren’t likely to do the hard work of removing barriers and dismantling harmful systems. This is such a beautiful and thought-provoking piece, Priscilla, and I’m so glad to have read it!
Thanks so much for this, Priscilla. I think about the same issue, and how it has extended from land to water. I really appreciate the references and footnotes.
Literally as I was reading this, an email arrived in my inbox announcing that Lyla June will be speaking right here at our Whidbey Island Center for the Arts on Friday!
Of course I'm going.
Great food for thought, Priscilla! Do you live on Maui now? We are going to be there April 28 through May 5. My sister has lived on Maui since 1996 and is a victim of the housing shortage crisis. She is now looking for another place to rent as her landlord is selling the house she’s renting a room in. I would love to get in touch with you to do a story about land use and housing on Maui when we arrive. A friend, John Lovie, forwarded me your blog after reading an article of mine about Lyla June’s upcoming lecture. Kate Poss, thisiswhidbey.com
Priscilla, I can't tell you how much I enjoyed reading this -- twice! It does my heart and head good to see all these ideas laid out so clearly. Sometimes (often) I feel I'm just mucking around with something so airy fairy and unreachable it seems silly to be spending so much time on it. But then I read this and think, "Yes! This is it exactly!" You explained John Locke's ideas wonderfully, and it's immensely frustrating to have read his writing on property and realize how much of our laws *and the dominant societal sense of self as "individual owners or strivers to own property"* are based on such a crumbling sand castle of ideas. There's no there-there.
Loved watching that webinar on un-propertying land alongside you! And really glad we're mucking around with these incredibly important ideas together. 💪💚
Great ideas! It's hard to imagine our system changing, yet the practice of imagining is necessary for us to improve our world. Climate leader Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson suggests being guided by love and by possibility, rather than hope: https://onbeing.org/programs/ayana-elizabeth-johnson-what-if-we-get-this-right/. I like that framing. She suggests that we start by focusing on our love for what it is we want to save. By asking the question, “What if we get this right?” we can focus on possibility — and even learn to love the future.
Pricilla, this piece filled in so many gaps in my understanding of land ownership, enclosure of the commons, and possibilities for the future. I’ve been really compelled by the ideas in Antonia Malchik’s newsletter, but feel like I connect with them poetically, without being able to wrap my mind around what it means pragmatically. Your piece fit like a puzzle piece into what I was struggling to grasp. I’m sure I’ll be returning to it.
I feel like there’s so much power in inviting people to imagine, to desire, a different way of being in the world. It’s so wonderful to see so many of us exercising the unique capacity of our own voice to extend the invitation. Thank you so much for this piece
Shaina, I’m so delighted to hear this! Researching and pulling it together was helpful for me too. Before, I had the impression that our landowning system just kind of “developed,” the way things do over time. But when I learned how brazenly the system was designed by a few men to cement the wealth of their class, I saw just how arbitrary the rules are—and therefore how they can be changed. Yes, invitations galore to envision a better world! And help bring it about! Thanks for being here.
Hey, Priscilla, check out Anne Helen Petersen today on land ownership's evil twin, rugged individualism: https://annehelen.substack.com/p/the-dark-heart-of-individualism