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Confessions of a Homeschool Dad
Feb. 7, 2006
Is Envy Cool?
It dawned on me recently that I'm encouraged to be envious every single day. I don't mean an under-the-breathe-"can-you-believe-what-that-loser-got" envy. I mean full on, hate filled, you-should-protest-or-something envy!
So, what exactly is envy?
I've always thought that envy was a feeling of discontent because I don't have some of the cool stuff that my neighbor has. Like the big bonus and raise that he got and he really doesn't deserve them anyway and I really do and I've NEVER gotten a huge bonus or a real raise.... Sorry, got carried away.
Here is the Dictionary.com definition of envy: " A feeling of discontent and resentment aroused by and in conjunction with desire for the possessions or qualities of another."
The difference in the definitions is the resentment part. Envy includes resenting someone else for the nice stuff / situation that they have.
ENVY! GET YOUR ENVY HERE!
Where is this happening?
Tell me - what is your impression of big corporate America? I was thinking about this recently and, while I defend most business people, there is this nagging negativity about big corporations.
Hate Wal-Mart because they don't pay people enough. Hate "Big Oil" because they're making too much money. Hate Pharmaceutical companies because they charge money to heal people of their illnesses. The message is out there every day.
Even people who have done evil (Think Enron, WorldCom, HealthSouth), we aren't supposed to hate them right? Isn't there something in the Bible about love your enemies? Or is that another book I'm thinking about?
MY OWN, PERSONAL ENVY
The negativity that I feel as this nagging at the back of my head has come primarily from work experiences, but also from constant negativity in the newspaper, on the news (though I don't watch TV news any more), and really everywhere in the media.
It is tough for me to shake sometimes when I see people doing really well who I have (in my opinion) worked longer, harder, and better than. Eventually, I get to the point where I remember that God deals with me the way he will and he has the right to do it. But I still feel that tug...
I've even seen Christians encouraging envy. Pastors encouraging their flocks to avoid shopping here, or saying that Jesus wouldn't buy an SUV, or other such nonsense. Shocked? Just wait...
ENVY AT HOMESCHOOLBLOGGER REARS ITS UGLY HEAD
Here in the hallowed halls of HomeSchoolBlogger, I've seen discussions that seem to encourage envy. As an example, there was one unanmed blog (to protect the commenters, not the blogger) that mentioned a women who seemed to have it all together, at least from the world's perspective.
She had a high-level, high-paying executive job, a husband who was a doctor or something similarly well-paid and well-respected, and 3 kids who she got to vacation with regularly (though not see much). She wore all the clothes women who don't have money coming out of their ears wish they could wear, she stayed in great physical shape, and set her own schedule, which was packed and she got a ton of things done every day.
While the blogger was just mentioning the woman and how together she had it and boy, if she could be that organized it would be great. Almost all of the commenters, on the other hand, started to bash this women. Things like, 'she couldn't be that wonderful', 'I bet her relationship with her husband / children is bad', and worse were said about this woman.
Now, I don't know any more about her than you do, but there were a lot of commenters who seemed to think that it was wrong, evil, impossible, or just plain offensive that she seemingly "had it all together".
IS ENVY COOL?
So, is it okay to be envious? Are we going to petition to remove it from the Seven Deadly Sins list? Is it really cool to be envious?
Or maybe I'm just plain wrong on envy and the things that I'm describing above really aren't envy. What do you think?
In the meantime, I'll just keep telling myself, "Rethink your responses to society. They don't have your best interests at heart."
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Feb. 7, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Thanks. And I'll definitely have to ask God to help me with this even more...