Life doesn’t come with an instruction manual, nor should it. We are held personally responsible for our bodies, thoughts, words, actions, and what we do with our wealth of knowledge.
“When I’m good, I’m very, very good. But when I’m bad, I’m better.” -Mae West
What if these were the words we all lived by? Can bad really be good?
It hurts to be the jealous dead flower stuck next to the beautiful blossom.
Deny all you want, but we all get a guilty pleasure feeling when bad things happen to good people. I’m not talking about the God-forsaken unthinkable things, but more along the lines of the jerk who rode your tail for miles and then flies around you on the interstate gets pulled over, or when the belittling big-mouth gets caught in an awkward and embarrassing situation in front of everyone, or when Alabama gets beat in football. <– Maybe not everyone agrees with me on this one…
What comes around, goes around. We all want to believe that’s true. I think they call that “karma.”
The delight you get from the misfortune of someone else is called schaden freude and admittedly, it can feel great. And I think it’s okay to enjoy schaden freude as long as we remind ourselves that we aren’t jumping for joy that these people are suffering.
We can use these envious feelings to empower us – to motivate us. Take these so-called bad guilty pleasures and turn them into something better. Toss out a compliment to the girl who you feel is always better dressed than you. Run faster (or at least try) than the person on the treadmill next to you who is sprinting without breaking a sweat.
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Take a moment to be bad knowing that is it okay to enjoy the envy only for a brief moment. Stop before you glow green with jealousy, find the faith you have in yourself, stop counting everyone else’s blessings and count our own. It’s so worth it.
Bridget says
amen!! thanks for a wonderful reminder!