Let’s talk about golf.
Did you know that golf courses take up about 2 million acres in the US? If you put all the golf courses together it would be larger that the state of Delaware. That is a lot of land. And you can’t just go play golf can you? What do you have to do to get on the golf course? There are memberships. And green fees. And you need the right clubs and equipment. And then you have to schedule a tee time. Golf is expensive. Maybe we should call them “gold courses.”
A typical golf course spans about 200 acres, and a good private course can only handle about 72 people playing at one time. That is one golfer for every 120,833 square feet. It sure is a lot of land for so few people to enjoy. Maintaining all of that land is expensive too. There is the mowing, herbicides, and sand to think of.
So how does all of that land get taxed? Have you ever wondered that? Can you imagine how much a golf course would have to pay in taxes if the land were valued the same way as your house? The taxes would be ridiculously high. But most golf courses get out of paying too much in taxes. California, for example, passed an amendment that got them out of a huge tax burden. There is also a law there that says if you own a property before 1978 and still live there, you can pay a much lower tax rate. It is 1 percent vs. a variable rate. Most golf courses have been around in California before 1978 so they benefit from that. But do they have the same owners? Not really. But once again the laws were interpreted for their benefit. How, you might ask? How can you interpret grandfathered laws that say you have to still have the same owners since 1978?
To get around this they used what some people call the Ship of Theseus argument. If you aren’t familiar with this don’t worry. I will explain. The Ship of Theseus was a vessel from Greek mythology. Ancient philosophers raised an interesting question about this ship. All ships would have to undergo maintenance of some sort, and that kind of upkeep would often include replacing boards, sails, and other parts on the ship that had worn down. What if, after several years of maintaining the ship, all of it (bit by bit) was eventually replaced? If this happened, would the Ship of Theseus still be the Ship of Theseus? Is it still the same ship if all of it is eventually replaced, just a little at a time?
For golf courses the legal answer was yes. If the owners are replaced a person at a time, the total ownership doesn’t change in the eyes of the law. So the golf courses got out of paying some pretty big taxes, and they still do.
What about us? Do our bodies replace parts? You bet they do. The skin cells of your body change pretty much completely within months. Your skeleton gets replaced every 10 years. About 40 percent of your heart gets replaced in your lifetime. And some of the brain’s neurons are replaced at about 1.75 percent annually.
So what about us then? Are we still the same person after a while? It’s quite a conundrum, isn’t it? But in a spiritual sense I find it comforting. The bible often talks about new beginnings. We get a chance to atone for our past and start fresh. If this kind of thing happens to our bodies automatically, why can’t it happen to our spirit? I think Revelation says it best.
Revelation 21:1-5
21 Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,”[a] for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’[b] or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
One of the last things the bible tells us is that God is in the business of making everything new. Maybe this happens all at once, and maybe it happens bit by bit. But the point is we can improve ourselves spiritually. And that is something God definitely wants us to do.