You can own a great many things. Possessions are always beautiful, they are always taken out of jealousy. A Mercedes is comfortable, itâs power is unquestionable; the way that the leather feels on skin, the way the seats embrace the occupants, the radio sings as beautifully as a siren; but the car isnât owned for itâs creature comforts. Its owned out of jealousy that someone else may own it if you donât buy it first. You pay sixty thousand dollars for a car to ease your jealousy and to convey it to someone else, the one who has to watch you slide into the supple seats, the one who has to sit stupefied at the power that you control and the power that you must have to have achieved ownership of such a specimen of what civilization is capable of creating.
A woman is no different. You do not love a woman, you possess her, you keep her from others; you make her the idol of your jealousy. You certainly can come to love a woman, but you cannot love her until you know her, the biological mechanism of endorphins flooding the blood stream like cocaine attacking the heart and making it rush with excitement cannot be achieved if you do not initially desire the woman. The desire is jealousy, the ancient and deeply embedded desire to horde the beautiful, to possess, to control. If you are not jealous for something, then you didnât want it in the first place, it has no value to you unless you want to keep it from others.
Such was my feeling toward Jessica. I saw her for the first time when she was but a woman-child of 13. Already developed, already bursting with sensuality at a time when I did not know what sensuality was. Instantly, I was jealous for her attention, jealous to own her. That was easily achieved; as anyone who has ever felt the pain of desire knows, if that pain is acute enough, you will either achieve the object of your desire or destroy yourself pursuing it. That could have been the end, ownership could have created happiness and the story would have went into its end in the same fashion as other love stories; this one was different, though. Not all objects of ones desire wish to be owned, but will only concede to their possession temporarily.
Jealousy and possession, possession and jealousy; the two, we know, are interminably linked together. The object of ones jealousy, the possessed, often concedes to their position as object because they are, in fact, jealous to be desired. Like the perfect song, which is so remarkably written that it seems to seek ears to reside in, so some objects of desire seek to be desired; base their value on their demand, rather than on the extent to which they are guarded.
Jessica and I had married, she had bore my children. She was owned by me completely. Five years in to happily ever after, she grew melancholy, inexplicably, she was unhappy. There were many possible reasons for her condition; maybe post-partum depression, maybe boredom from being kept at home to raise small children, possibly the natural process of getting older and losing touch with the friends and excitement of youth. The truth came in the form of letters. She had found suitors, new men who were jealous for her attention, who would possess her. My most valued object was being eyed by would-be thieves.
Chapter 2.
A common metaphor for the onslaught of emotions which rocks oneâs being is to simply call the emotion a âpingâ, which is quite insufficient, but conventions are meant to be adhered to. So, at the realization that my favorite item was in jeopardy from those who would attempt to remove her from me, I was surprised by the unmistakable ping of excitement. These are two conflicting emotions, angry jealousy and eager excitement; foretelling an interesting, if destructive, story which would unfold regardless of any attempts to stop it.
Jessicaâs need to be desired became more prevalent and unmistakable, seemingly, each day. My jealousy was pleased by the events. Like the driver of the Mercedes must see the desire in other driverâs eyes and feel empowered by knowledge that he has what other men cannot have; I too experienced the euphoria of having what others wanted. But, though the owner of the beautiful car may savor the wanton appreciation of others for his vehicle, it would be quite another thing indeed to allow the onlookers to borrow the vehicle for the weekend.
The car can be truly owned, though; it makes no choices in itâs condition of ownership. A woman, however, does make choices. Her choices are no more easy than those of he who possesses her. She loves her man, she pleases him and works hard to do so, she does not want to see where his jealousy for her may lead him. She also wants to be appreciated, by more than he whom she already knows appreciates her well. Her man is not the only one who basis her value on how desirable she is to the onlookers.
Jessicaâs choice was made, she could have both. She could both be true to her husband, she could remain his exclusive property in heart, mind and soul, while also giving herself to others physically. She believed whole heartedly that a separation could be made, that love and sex were different things.
Chapter 3
I had also made a choice. My jealousy would carry me to dangerous territory, too dangerous for me to allow for my excitement, my titillation, to carry me into that unknown land of division of my most valued possession.
To make up for my lack of ability to give her the sexual promiscuity that she desired, I attempted to fulfill her need to be desired on my own. I used her in every way possible, degraded her perfectly. She was an eager subject of my objectification, eagerly submitting to urine showers, come facials, fisting, violence. But, as with anyone who owns something which they believe to be of value, I could not keep up with her desire to be used without worrying that I might destroy the very thing that had become my idol.
Constant tension erupted, between my desire to possess her and my desire to please her. Tension developed in her as well, between her desire to please me and her desire to please everyone who admired her. Emotional arguments ensued, positions changed from acceptance of the status quo, to eagerness for a complete about-face. This tension simmered for years, sometimes forcefully and sometimes deep in the background of everyday life. In the meantime, I satisfied myself with the fact that though my possession wanted to be shared and for that reason alone was no longer truly mine, the act had not actually occurred and so my position of ownership and domination was undisturbed to any great measure.
Chapter 4
After 12 years of marriage, Jessica and I were both 30, the entire discussion seemed to have dissipated. There had not been talk for years on the subject, and in truth, the matter had escaped my consciousness completely. Jessica had completed her work at the university, both of our children were in school, and so Jessica had been able to take a career as a teacher and was busy with work and family and had grown seemingly content with her life.
Perhaps unfortunately I had also pursued my career as I had from a very young age and had achieved a great deal of success in my field. With success came more and more possessions, more and more objects for me to appreciate, to be jealous for. When youâre poor, you have a limited number of possessions, and so those which you have are extremely important and seemingly irreplaceable and priceless. I wasnât poor any longer. I had my own Mercedes, I had a home which required filling, and time which needed things to be spent on. What I chose to spend my time on was the unending pursuit of the next thing which my heart could not be still without.
I only had so much attention to spread around and though every man loves everything which he owns, you cannot give everything in your life the necessary attention at all times. I realized this was the case with Jessica and I attempted to replace time and emotion that I used to devote to her with items of desire which she could be jealous for herself. Such was the case during one summer vacation the year Jessica turned 31. Being a teacher, she of course had summers off. As a gesture of kindness, and a demonstration of my guilt, I offered to send her on a monthâs vacation to the location of her choice. I also insisted that she take this vacation alone. One reason being that I couldnât have went had I wanted to because I had far too much responsibility at work to take a month off, and the other being that I thought that everyone needed time to themselves. Jessica seemed reluctant to leave me and the children behind, but eventually conceded that a vacation all to herself may be a pleasure, and accepted my offer. Inexplicably she chose the State of Texas as her vacation destination.