Sometimes we learn as adults what we were taught as children. For example, lately I have been coveting my neighbor's ass. Not obsessively or anything, but enough so that I have become aware of it. Keenly aware of it. I try to remind myself that this is their ass and it was meant for them and not for me, I have my own things. Perhaps they worked hard for that ass and this is why they have it or maybe that ass is not all that it seems...it doesn't matter, this particular ass, seemingly perfect as it is, is not for me. Someday the PowersThatBe might grant me my own wonderfully great ass - or not. It is beyond my control.
Don't get me wrong, I am extraordinarily grateful for all of the things in my life...so grateful in fact that I can even be grateful that I have a neighbor who has an ass of which I can covet. Had I never seen that ass, I wouldn’t have known that I wanted one so badly. Mind you, the "ass" to which I am speaking is neither donkey nor derriere (but it could be) and what it is doesn't really matter unless, of course, you are just nosy and ultimately want to end up coveting the ass of someone you don’t even know. Oh no, friend. I will save you from this struggle. Besides, why live your life in constant frustration focusing on what you don’t have and being jealous of what other people do have? Maybe there's a cosmic scoreboard or great equalizer that makes adjustments. Like, maybe the neighbor with the object in question has ugly feet or some sort of fungus and this is how or why the PTB allowed for them to have such a spectacular thingamabob. I am so thankful I don’t have ugly feet which seems to be a prerequisite for having some of the things I really wish I had.
Is there a moral to this story?
Yes. It seems to me that it might just be better to live your life being thankful for what you do have rather than be jealous of others for what they have - and not just on holidays.