Equal Pay for Unequal Work
What A Catastrophe
Two Rivals
Quote
Leading Poet
Jealousy and Envy
Topic : Jealousy
Feathers
There is a fable of an eagle which could outfly another, and the other didn’t like it. The latter saw a sportsman one day, and said to him: “I wish you would bring down that eagle.”
The sportsman replied that he would if he only had some feathers to put into the arrow. So the eagle pulled one out of his wing. he arrow was shot, but didn’t quite reach the rival eagle; it was flying too high. The envious eagle pulled out more feathers, and kept pulling them out until he lost so many that he couldn’t fly, and then the sportsman turned around and killed him.
My friend, if you are jealous, the only man you can hurt is yourself.
Equal Pay for Unequal Work
The parable of the vineyard workers (Matt. 20) offends our sense of fairness. Why should everyone get equal pay for unequal work?
Back in Ontario when the apples ripened, Mom would sit all seven of us down, Dad included, with pans and paring knives until the mountain of fruit was reduced to neat rows of filled canning jars. She never bothered keeping track of how many we did, though the younger ones undoubtedly proved more of a nuisance than a help: cut fingers, squabbles over who got which pan, apple core fights. But when the job was done, the reward for everyone was the same: the largest chocolate-dipped cone money could buy. A stickler might argue it wasn’t quite fair since the older ones actually peeled apples. But I can’t remember anyone complaining about it. A family understands it operates under a different set of norms than a courtroom. In fact, when the store ran out of ice cream and my younger brother had to make do with a popsicle, we felt sorry for him despite his lack of productivity (he’d eaten all the apples he’d peeled that day—both of them).
God wants all his children to enjoy the complete fullness of eternal life. No true child of God wants it any other way.
- Robert De Moor
What A Catastrophe
Irish novelist and playwright Samuel Beckett received great recognition for his work—but not everyone savored his accomplishments. Beckett’s marriage, in fact, was soured by his wife’s jealousy of his growing fame and success as a writer. One day in 1969 his wife Suzanne answered the telephone, listened for a moment, spoke briefly, and hung up. She then turned to Beckett and with a stricken look whispered, “What a catastrophe!”
Was it a devastating personal tragedy? No, she had just learned that Beckett had been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature!
Two Rivals
Two shopkeepers were bitter rivals. Their stores were directly across the street from each other, and they would spend each day keeping track of each other’s business. If one got a customer, he would smile in triumph at his rival.
One night an angel appeared to one of the shopkeepers in a dream and said, “I will give you anything you ask, but whatever you receive, your competitor will receive twice as much. Would you be rich? You can be very rich, but he will be twice as wealthy. Do you wish to live a long and healthy life? You can, but his life will be longer and healthier. What is your desire?”
The man frowned, thought for a moment, and then said, “Here is my request: Strike me blind in one eye!”
One sign of jealousy is when it’s easier to show sympathy and “weep with those who weep” than it is to exhibit joy and “rejoice with those who rejoice.”
Quote
It is the eyes of other people that ruin us. If all but myself were blind, I should want neither a fine house nor fine furniture. - Benjamin Franklin
Leading Poet
For many years Sir Walter Scott was the leading literary figure in the British Empire. No one could write as well as he. Then the works of Lord Byron began to appear, and their greatness was immediately evident. Soon an anonymous critic praised his poems in a London Paper. He declared that in the presence of these brilliant works of poetic genius, Scott could no longer be onsidered the leading poet of England. It was later discovered that the unnamed reviewer had been none other than Sir Walter Scott himself!
Jealousy and Envy
There is a distinction between jealousy and envy. To envy is to want something which belongs to another person. “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house, his wife or his servant, his ox or donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
In contrast, jealousy is the fear that something which we possess will be taken away by another person. Although jealousy can apply to our jobs, our possessions, or our reputations, the word more often refers to anxiety which comes when we are afraid that the affections of a loved one might be lost to a rival. We fear that our mates, or perhaps our children, will be lured away by some other person who, when compared to us, seems to be more attractive, capable and successful.
