The subject of one’s personal relationship to the Earth is rarely broached in common discourse, and even less when buying a piece of land. How often do we reflect on the significance of the land we interact with, and the land we own? What does it mean to own land, besides signing documents?
Whether urban or suburban, the homes we dwell in often have gardens, yards, rooftop greenspaces, or plants found on porches. Parks and public spaces are quickly filled by people wanting to escape the bustle of the city and enjoy a little green space. As for our dwellings, they themselves sit above the earth’s soil. How often do we reflect on the significance and importance of this very soil in our daily lives? In the book Slide Mountain: Or, the Folly of Owning Nature (1998), Steinberg writes that “land has taken on new meaning in a culture where property, because it is so often abstract and dephysicalized, seems to offer its owners far less in the way of control” (16). Signing a lease or owning a home make us owners of a certain space. However, the commodification of this land in turn makes us lose sight of its intrinsic value.
1. ‘Paying’ attention
“Own Your Purchase” is a document that raises the idea of paying gratitude to land through the medium of a letter of thanks when purchasing a property. This reimagined transaction process aims to encourage future owners to reflect on the land that surrounds them. The first step includes “connecting with the land”. The short video clip demonstrates an attunement to the land around us. Footage is shot from land in nearby camping-sites in Quebec, along with land found right outside our own dwellings.
The clip demonstrates the step of ‘connecting with land’ and explores what connections we currently engage with it inside our homes. For example, water runs through our taps, and we bring plants and small trees into our dwellings. The video thus contrasts indoor and outdoor commodities and nature. The video repeats the same clips and increases in speed towards the end to draw attention to the routine fashion in which we enable this commodification . If we break this routine and slow down – and pay more attention to the land that lives around us, it can enrich our understanding of nature and its value, along with deepening our respect and gratitude for the land. As seen with the water permeating through the cement during the last clip, nature is here and it is abundant; it is our responsibility to recognize it.
2. Decommodifying the Earth
In the eyes of the contemporary hegemonic Western political economy, the natural world becomes a valuable commodity to be exchanged for capital, developed upon to increase land value, and scrutinized in order to maximize future value. In this view, land is but an element to be commodified, bought and sold without thoughtful or sincere gratitude paid to the Earth itself. In legal writing and cultural agreement, the Earth is silenced, dephysicalized (Steinberg), and made sterile in order to make property transactions socially acceptable and legally possible. The act of purchasing land requires buyers to obtain legal advice to ensure understanding of notarized deeds of sale. But what if another step was required to purchase land, like the act of entering a relationship of gratitude (Kimmerer) with it? What if access to land ownership depended on a written and signed letter of gratitude addressed to the land for sale?
3. Purchasing Private Property... Reimagined
Step one: Connect with the land. To truly understand the land, consult a pedological historian knowledgeable of the specific land area for sale. Walk the land, connect to the Earth, the plants, the local wildlife, and tune into the land.
Step two: Express gratitude. Compose a letter addressed to the land expressing your gratitude and commitment to respecting the Earth.
Step three: Acquire access to the deed of sale. One the letter of gratitude is written and signed, the buyer may gain access to the notarized deed of purchase and sale.
Step four: Own your purchase. Deepen your connection with the area of Earth in your name. Pay gratitude each day. Live up to your commitment to own land, and own your purchase.
4. Assessing the value of land, holistically
When purchasing property, value is calculated according to the capital invested in the house and its distance relative to other valuable locations, rather than the ecological biodiversity of local ecosystems. This measure of value – so dependent on inert and arbitrary material worth – fails to account for the more meaningful, and conspicuous value measurement that can be calculated through biodiversity. In fact, common value assessments work in direct opposition to the value of nature. Increased development thus brings higher financial value but often results in diminished or impoverished biodiversity.
Once built, a home structure is set in stone. It is a material and permanent thing. Yet, looking at the natural world, we know that value resides in flexibility and the ability to adapt. Wildlife, both vegetal and animal, is adaptive, responsive, and resilient by nature. Even aesthetically, natural landscapes are much more visually appealing and diverse than developed ones. When assessing property value, why shouldn’t the garden be the main focus, and the house merely an accessory? Why can’t we regard nature as the key source of value and treat it as such, with deep respect and abundant care? Might our idea of value be reshaped for the better if we shift our focus from cement to soil?
5. Works Cited
- Kimmerer, Robin Wall. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants. Milkweed Editions, 2013.
- Ontario Real Estate Association. “Agreement of Sale and Purchase.” 2012. PDF file.
- Steinberg, Theodore. Slide Mountain: Or, The Folly of Owning Nature. University of California Press, 1995. https://books.google.ca/books?id=hOSnUrppqcUC&printsec =frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
