Thinking about what you have

 One other note on Tantalos: The idea of what we have is pretty clear in some cases, but the concept can get fuzzy.

A small child is absolutely clear about whether she has the promised ice cream. But when we talk of the relationships we have, it’s not so clear what having is. What claims can we make about the friendship we have with the a god? Can we really claim the love of a child we just put in the soup?

Here’s a trivial example of having, perhaps easier to understand because it doesn’t involve people:

I grew up among rural folks who prized having land. That’s the kind of having they valued. They were proud when they passed land down to their children.

I love public — not private — land. I use it in the sense that I walk it almost every day and look at the changes in vegetation and wildlife. I know it. I’m familiar with it. I love this land, but don’t own it, except in the sense that we are all owners and trustees of public land.

I claim that I have land. My sense of having is different than the one I inherited from ancestors.