Graves

watch original V-Blog in Persian

Land is a big asset. And it's all about location, location, location. We pay large sums for it, we protect it and we accumulate it – individuals and nations alike. Here in South Africa, we build nice big walls with barbed wire or electric fences so that no one touches it. Behind those walls we create havens of comfort for ourselves. Land is precious, it's our investment, it's our future. Oh – and it sure is our future. Because all of us, no matter who we are, whether we have a 30 million dollar home or a shack we call ours, it's land we'll ultimately end up being buried in. How ironic that it's land we fight over most:

"...How is it possible for men to fight from morning until evening, killing each other, shedding the blood of their fellow-men: And for what object? To gain possession of a part of the earth! Even the animals, when they fight, have an immediate and more reasonable cause for their attacks! How terrible it is that men, who are of the higher kingdom, can descend to slaying and bringing misery to their fellow-beings, for the possession of a tract of land!

The highest of created beings fighting to obtain the lowest form of matter, earth! Land belongs not to one people, but to all people. This earth is not man's home, but his tomb. It is for their tombs these men are fighting. There is nothing so horrible in this world as the tomb, the abode of the decaying bodies of men..." - Abdu'l-Baha, Paris Talks, p.27-30

Maybe next time you drive around the neighborhood on an open-house Sunday, you'll feel a little different about the frenzy that surrounds our craze to possess. Sometimes we just need to look up from the dust that we've been chasing for so long and see what life is really about.