19 January 2015

The opposite of envy (Repost)

I've decided to repost this article from August 2012. It's one of the most popular posts on the blog, so if you haven't seen it before, read on...




















  1. Envy is humourless, so if one can inject a little humour into life that goes a long way to chase envy away. A friend coined a phrase that sums it up perfectly for me. When hearing of a fellow writer's huge success she said wryly "I can feel myself wearing a green T shirt of envy!" We laughed and envy was dissolved but that simple and amusing phrase has stayed with me as a way to banish envy when it threatens. We all have a green T shirt of envy somewhere in our wardrobe because life isn't fair, and the child in us still resents that sometimes but if we can, as our mother used to say, "catch ourselves on," it never gets an airing. In fact, I'm rather hoping I've almost grown out of mine but I'm keeping it, just to remind me how ridiculous I'd look if I put it on!

  2. You make an interesting point about humour, Cindy; it can defuse envy, no doubt about that. Humour is a powerful thing - and three cheers for it in that role. But I'd add a note of caution. Humour can also be used like a weapon, to ridicule and to undermine. Humour has, so to speak, a dark side. We should never use it that way, but the potential is there.

    Unlike humour, joy has no motives. Humour comes from the human mind, wit is a construction. Joy just is - or is not. The presence of joy is always a good thing, and its absence always bad. People possess humour, but joy possesses people.

    Or so it seems to me.

    Meanwhile, the best thing for that green T-shirt of envy would be if the moths ate holes in it! But perhaps they don't like the flavour.



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