Green is the ugliest color...
Ah, envy.
Day 1 - Pride. Seven great things about yourself.
Day 2 - Envy. Seven things you lack and covet.
Day 3 - Wrath. Seven things that piss you off.
Day 4 - Sloth. Seven things you neglect to do.
Day 5 - Greed. Seven worldly material desires.
Day 6 - Gluttony. Seven guilty pleasures.
Day 7 - Lust. Seven sex secrets.
Envy:
1. Creative people. By this I mean the folks that have put in the time and tears to master a craft that has an output. I appear a lot more creative than I am, I think; people seem to assume I'm creative but really, I am manipulative. I can manipulate the environment around me, the systems around me and the people around me, but I am not truly creative. I don't create things; there aren't tangible things I can point to and say 'I made this', like the end of an episode of X-Files. As a kid I had opportunity to do art classes and the like, but it required the sort of focus that I did not have as a kid and I've never made the decision to do so as an adult.
2. Athletes. I'm not athletic. Some of that is that it just isn't a class skill for geeks, but also it's a form of specialization that I never went in for. A couple of times throughout my life I've been in what I'd call good or even great shape, but that doesn't make me athletic. I was definitely not physical as a kid. I lived with a lot of wide open space and I enjoyed roaming about the area until my teens. I spent time on beaches and in the water. I got a lot of sun and bug bites and the area was rural enough then that we didn't have a lot of neighbors... but group sports? And the group dynamics associated with them? Not my bag, baby.
3. Specialization. This is a superset of the other two, I suppose, but if we're talking about envy I can't avoid admitting that if I had it to do over again I would exert more effort toward becoming truly good at a couple of things. Of course, as a true student of Heinlein I can't support serious specialization: "A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects." Believe it or not, I set about learning to do all of these things and can manage all of them to some degree except conning a ship... well, and dying gallantly. Stay tuned on that one.
4. The young. Ah, youth. I spent mine like the currency that it really is; inevitably, innocence is what we spend on gaining experience... but as I push 38 this year, I think about how I'm going to look in the next ten years. Time has been fairly kind to me... so far. The lovely and talented soundofthemoon explained to me once about a deal he made with his body and aging. I like to hope I've come to a similar arrangement, and the last couple of years I've paid attention to my health and general wellness as part of that arrangement. Still, I am envious of the young and the world they have grown up in; I hope that my parents' generation does not leave them only ruins.
5. Beauty. This is a broad category... yes, I envy folks that seem to easily slip into what passes as culturally beautiful, but I also envy folks that live surrounded by beauty. I live in a nice area, but it's not what I have found myself wanting... if I can get away from wanting all the conveniences that my life has currently, that is. Beauty is subjective, of course... I'm sure the people I envy for being beautiful may not overlap with everyone. I have pretty open standards in this regard (okay, I'm easy but many of you know this) and I think I envy those folks less and less as time goes on. It's not like I have lived a life where I feel I don't have access to beauty or beautiful people, so envy feels a bit silly... but it exists.
6. Driven, focused people. Again, maybe a superset of specialists, but I'm talking about folks that don't seem to need or take idle time to recover from whatever it is they do. These folks are always on to the next task and they seem productive and happier for it. I... need/want/choose to take a fair amount of idle time. This could mean getting lost on the internet or playing computer games, or it could mean reading or laying in the sun... but I have this as a priority in my life and it flirts dangerously with sloth at times.
7. Wealth; no list about envy is complete without talking about the truly wealthy. I almost left this off the list; not to be disengenuous but because I'm not sure how I feel about it. By any objective measurement of the world at large, I am wealthy. I have the things I need and the means with which to do most of what I want, even if it involves saving for awhile or assuming debt to make it happen. But the idea of spending four months a year on my yacht in the Mediterranean... yeah... that has an appeal that I won't lie and say I don't envy. I'd probably go a little crazy if I was that rich... but it's sure appealing to think about.
I should post this before it becomes a Friday afternoon casualty. Many meetings the rest of the day, and then off to enjoy our friend A&S who are visiting. We've both missed them terribly, so it'll be a good night out!
Day 1 - Pride. Seven great things about yourself.
Day 2 - Envy. Seven things you lack and covet.
Day 3 - Wrath. Seven things that piss you off.
Day 4 - Sloth. Seven things you neglect to do.
Day 5 - Greed. Seven worldly material desires.
Day 6 - Gluttony. Seven guilty pleasures.
Day 7 - Lust. Seven sex secrets.
Envy:
1. Creative people. By this I mean the folks that have put in the time and tears to master a craft that has an output. I appear a lot more creative than I am, I think; people seem to assume I'm creative but really, I am manipulative. I can manipulate the environment around me, the systems around me and the people around me, but I am not truly creative. I don't create things; there aren't tangible things I can point to and say 'I made this', like the end of an episode of X-Files. As a kid I had opportunity to do art classes and the like, but it required the sort of focus that I did not have as a kid and I've never made the decision to do so as an adult.
2. Athletes. I'm not athletic. Some of that is that it just isn't a class skill for geeks, but also it's a form of specialization that I never went in for. A couple of times throughout my life I've been in what I'd call good or even great shape, but that doesn't make me athletic. I was definitely not physical as a kid. I lived with a lot of wide open space and I enjoyed roaming about the area until my teens. I spent time on beaches and in the water. I got a lot of sun and bug bites and the area was rural enough then that we didn't have a lot of neighbors... but group sports? And the group dynamics associated with them? Not my bag, baby.
3. Specialization. This is a superset of the other two, I suppose, but if we're talking about envy I can't avoid admitting that if I had it to do over again I would exert more effort toward becoming truly good at a couple of things. Of course, as a true student of Heinlein I can't support serious specialization: "A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects." Believe it or not, I set about learning to do all of these things and can manage all of them to some degree except conning a ship... well, and dying gallantly. Stay tuned on that one.
4. The young. Ah, youth. I spent mine like the currency that it really is; inevitably, innocence is what we spend on gaining experience... but as I push 38 this year, I think about how I'm going to look in the next ten years. Time has been fairly kind to me... so far. The lovely and talented soundofthemoon explained to me once about a deal he made with his body and aging. I like to hope I've come to a similar arrangement, and the last couple of years I've paid attention to my health and general wellness as part of that arrangement. Still, I am envious of the young and the world they have grown up in; I hope that my parents' generation does not leave them only ruins.
5. Beauty. This is a broad category... yes, I envy folks that seem to easily slip into what passes as culturally beautiful, but I also envy folks that live surrounded by beauty. I live in a nice area, but it's not what I have found myself wanting... if I can get away from wanting all the conveniences that my life has currently, that is. Beauty is subjective, of course... I'm sure the people I envy for being beautiful may not overlap with everyone. I have pretty open standards in this regard (okay, I'm easy but many of you know this) and I think I envy those folks less and less as time goes on. It's not like I have lived a life where I feel I don't have access to beauty or beautiful people, so envy feels a bit silly... but it exists.
6. Driven, focused people. Again, maybe a superset of specialists, but I'm talking about folks that don't seem to need or take idle time to recover from whatever it is they do. These folks are always on to the next task and they seem productive and happier for it. I... need/want/choose to take a fair amount of idle time. This could mean getting lost on the internet or playing computer games, or it could mean reading or laying in the sun... but I have this as a priority in my life and it flirts dangerously with sloth at times.
7. Wealth; no list about envy is complete without talking about the truly wealthy. I almost left this off the list; not to be disengenuous but because I'm not sure how I feel about it. By any objective measurement of the world at large, I am wealthy. I have the things I need and the means with which to do most of what I want, even if it involves saving for awhile or assuming debt to make it happen. But the idea of spending four months a year on my yacht in the Mediterranean... yeah... that has an appeal that I won't lie and say I don't envy. I'd probably go a little crazy if I was that rich... but it's sure appealing to think about.
I should post this before it becomes a Friday afternoon casualty. Many meetings the rest of the day, and then off to enjoy our friend A&S who are visiting. We've both missed them terribly, so it'll be a good night out!