Jealousy or Something Else?
Not long ago I got to thinking about the idea of jealousy. This is something that has puzzled me for years and has even caused problems in my own life. People have gotten upset with me because they felt I was not jealous enough and that created tension in some of my relationships – rather the opposite problem from what jealousy usually is expected to cause. But as I pondered on this thing called jealousy, I began to realize that, like so many other words that have been hijacked and transposed from their true meaning, jealousy has been used as a cover-up for a much more sinister attitude that has fallen largely out of use in our common vocabulary. Why is it that sometimes we consider jealousy to be a positive virtue and at other times we view is as something evil or negative? Why do we think that people who are jealous are doing something wrong while at the same time viewing people with suspicion if they do not become jealous at times? I believe that a large part of that reason is ...