ENVY

Envy is resentment on another's advantage. It is a very negative feeling. It destroys friendship, one's future or even oneself. Once it is felt, it overwhelms the whole person and doesn't stop until the one affected is completely torn into pieces.

Yet, envy is so ordinary, so commonly experience by almost everyone most of the time. It is the reason why the poor is against the rich, the weak is mad at the strong, the ugly is angry at the beautiful and the old cannot accept the young. Yes, it is also the reason why some parents cannot tolerate the behavior of their siblings. Then they blame everything and everyone to cover-up his envy.

I realized this when I came home one afternoon and found my son playing basketball with his "barkada". They were noisy, jerky and jumpy. At first I was irritated but soon I felt how happy they were in what they were doing. They could have been doing other things and I would also be irritated not because what they were doing was socially unacceptable or intolerable but I have to acknowledge that it is because I didn't have a chance to be as happy as they are when I was their age. Now I understand.

Things have changed so much since our time. Every aspect of life has been completely transformed into something so new and so different that they become difficult to accept. But a deeper analysis reveals that it is not because those things are unacceptable but because in truth the old generations are envious that they didn't experience what the young ones are enjoying.

With the coming of the new technologies the gap between generations is getting wider unless you turned out to be like me who always follow the trend. Who said I am old???