Make Jealousy Your Friend

Don’t pretend like you don’t feel a little envious from time to time.

Image by ANTSTUDIO

I thought I was over jealousy.

I would tell my friends, “Yeah, I used to feel a bit like that but I think I grew out of it.”

Turns out I was just in denial.

Turns out that little feeling that swells in my gut, travels up my spine, and fills my brain with an irrational hatred for a fellow human being…well, it’s still there.

True, it’s subtle, but it does raise its ugly head on occasion. At least now the intrusion is followed by my awareness of it, along with the customary shame and self-loathing.

Yep, jealousy is a bitch.

You may succeed in chopping one of the heads off the hydra, but a different one will always take its place — it all depends on how your values shift.

Society tends to favor certain kinds of jealousy over others. There’s loud, barefaced, drunken jealousy, or jealousy revealed by a flash of crocodile eyes, then there’s the kind I’m fortunate enough to possess: the quiet, nonconfrontational kind — the kind you tend to get away with if you keep it to yourself.

For example, I’m not overly possessive of my partner, and I don’t care if you’re better looking, have more…