Envy, that glittering green vice that eats at you, can consume you whole and take over your desires. I remember watching the 2004 comedy movie called Envy with Jack Black and Ben Stiller on my first plane flight to California to my widowed Grandfather's wedding. I remember nothing about this movie - not even that it was probably horrible - except something about "Va-poo-rize" and that Envy is associated with being green.
Green is not one of my favorite colors mostly because it makes me look like a leprechaun. I never have anything to wear on St. Patrick's Day because I don't own any green clothes.
I don't wear it well.
When we were assigned to give two honest and thoughtful compliments to two people about something or some trait that we desired, I thought it would be easy.
I started to plan... What were character traits, abilities, or things that other people have that I want? How would I set up these compliments? How could I mean them?
The more I thought about it, the less clear things became.
I don't envy people or things - in fact, I give people compliments that I mean all the time, and not even necessarily to people that are close to me.
I am overly free with my compliments. I tell my wife that I love her and that she is beautiful almost every day (which is a good thing.) I do think, however, that for some people, this would become less meaningful over time.
For instance, for this assignment, I told my brother that he does an excellent job in keeping up with reading some of the Classics every day (or at least Mortimer Adler's Great Ideas from the Great Books.) This is something that I truly want to do as well as him, but the compliment was taken in stride. It wasn't as meaningful as it could be. I did not have an opportunity to give my second compliment - mainly because I could not think of anything greater than what I normally do.
In a way, I think that I am blessed to have this trait, and my friends and family love me for it.
But I think I could do with some green in my wardrobe - at least for St. Paddy's Day! I do not mean this in terms of the vice of Envy, but maybe I should save some compliments for when they mean more to the people I deeply care about.
