Owning Up to Possession’s Downside

My, My, My

We say ‘my shoe’ and ‘my lover,’ but the sense of possession isn’t at all the same, or isn’t it, maybe a little? Oh, the heaven and hell wrought by the casual use of a pronoun.

Published Dec. 14 2014 6:45AM EST

articles/2014/12/14/owning-up-to-possession-s-downside/141213-harvey-possessions-tease_ndab5z — Getty Images

The Japanese have different words for love. To them, it’s plain weird that we love spaghetti and love our children and love our lovers, all with the same word, when surely the thing being described as love is radically different in each case.

By the same token, maybe we need different...

Samantha Harvey

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Owning Up to Possession’s Downside

We say ‘my shoe’ and ‘my lover,’ but the sense of possession isn’t at all the same, or isn’t it, maybe a little? Oh, the heaven and hell wrought by the casual use of a pronoun.

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Samantha Harvey