The Creative Writing Challenge - Task #1 - "Jealousy is an excellent clue"
Yeah, it’s a clue to human nature. Right or wrong human nature is just that, human nature. One of the inextricably entangled emotions that we all must deal with is jealousy and its ramifications. The base, core nature of the emotion gives an idea of just how hard it is for humans to work with it in a constructive manner. History has proven the negatives of jealousy but there are positives that result from the emotion as well.
A key driving force in many of the decisions made by humans has been due to a desire for something, someone, or a lifestyle that another human has or is. This is nowhere more obvious than in the current consumer culture that we are enveloped in. Homogeny in possession acquisition is a driving force in consumerism, the more people who buy the same products the better the business does, but at the expense of individuality or uniqueness.
Where jealousy stands out positively is in the potential of humans to use the emotion as a nexus for motivation. The motivation to acquire has been the primary force in nearly all advances that have been made. Acquiring knowledge, experience, or understanding all become beneficial byproducts of the motivation and in turn lead to major advances for our society.
For a moment imagine what state our societies would be in if humans were not competing for possessions but rather knowledge. Motivated to increase our knowledge and mental capabilities rather than dedicating time to possession acquisition, the potential for unilateral human cooperation could be possible. This of course does not take into account the human ego which is always the wild card.
My personal experience with jealousy has positively evolved as I have aged. As a young adult I found myself jealous of friends and acquaintances for the possessions or experiences they had. This eventually waned and I found my jealousy had switched to a new path, that of time, or the ability of others to be able to make the time or have the time to accomplish their goals. Becoming a parent is a large instigator for this change in my experience of jealousy, and I am seeing it as a major benefit to my mental state and my daily interactions with others.
This post is for the The Creative Writing Challenge - Task #1 being put on by @steemfluencer. I have the "problem" of being able to see every book shelf in the house in my head, so I had my wife pick a shelf for me, which ended up being the shelf with "The Artist's Way" as the 7th book from the left. I find it to be very appropriate to have worked out like this.
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Just decided to check how are you guys doing and logged in my Steemit profile. Guess what I saw on my home page.
Good job of your wife then! :)))
''One of the inextricably entangled emotions that we all must deal with is jealousy and its ramifications.'' - cool, very well spotted. Everyone is struggling with different inextricably entangled emotions and for many of us jealousy is the strongest one.
I've heard, that some of the weakness we are fighting with, sometimes the whole life isn't enough to overcome them.
Good timing!
Personally I feel that jealousy is just a facet, with the gem being the ego. The human condition is our ego and human nature is to massage the ego, not to hurt it. One of the key aspects of Monks is giving up possessions to help remove the connection to the ego and alleviate distractions but even they deal with it.
It would be interesting to hear the Dali Lama's thoughts on his own forms of jealousy and ego. I only see quotes in my searches.
Completely agree! Massaging the ego is what we are inclined to do by instinct and trying to overcome our selfishness is part of the tough road towards ourselves.. Possessions are nice when we really need it. What's ridiculous is that we could be pretty fine without most of the things we posses.
Great post!