jealousy

"Jealousy is a disease, love is a healthy condition. The immature mind often mistakes one for the other, or assumes that the greater the love, the greater the jealousy — in fact, they are almost incompatible; one emotion hardly leaves room for the other. "

-- Jubal Harshaw, "Stranger in a Strange Land" by Robert Heinlein

In my mind, jealousy is possession...I see what they have, I want it, and I don't want them to have it. Envy, on the other hand, is desire: I see what they have, and I want it too. We all have moments of both...it's inevitable, it's human.

Jealousy and love are a volatile combination...in fact, I often wondered if it's truly "love" if there is possession and jealousy involved. In the above-mentioned novel, the theme of love and jealousy is a big one; the idea is that if you are feeling jealousy, you should look inside to try to determine the roots of it. Just as the root of anger is fear, I believe the same is true for jealousy...so the key is to dig deep and try to identify the underlying issues, find the cause of the fear, and address it.

Like I said, jealousy is a very powerful, very human emotion. And like all emotions, we can let it rule us, or we can look at it, bring it into the light, and take away its power.

To quote an earlier entry: it's up to us.