For the record, I’m not a big fan of tuna, especially the kind you buy in a can.  Left-over tuna leaves a sour smell in your refrigerator and, worse, in your mouth.  Pasta is definitely an upgrade when accompanied by the appropriate sauce. When I was growing up, I didn’t eat a lot of tuna, but like many others, I ate my share of pasta. In my home, these two food items were never combined into a single dish. I guess we were rich and therefore, I was never forced to eat tuna fish pasta because I always had other options.

My hypocrisy is legend, so my confession is not earth-shattering. It won’t surprise you to know that I occasionally suffer from envy. To be honest, no one really suffers from envy. We suffer in envy. Envy is a condition and attitude resulting from feelings of discontent with regard to another person’s perceived advantage, status, success, or possessions. “Envious” is the word we use to describe those who personify this feeling. In other words, envy is a description of our choice  in responding to others about whom we feel inferior. Envy is not the culprit. Dissatisfaction with our current condition or status is the perpetrator. Ironically, those who are most dissatisfied rarely acknowledge their envy, choosing instead to blame everyone else for their discontent.

Those who roundly criticize and ridicule the advantaged only announce the dissatisfaction that exists in their own spirit. Rather than deal honestly and personally with the disappointment that permeates their own lives, they fall into the trap of formulating and spewing venomous diatribes against the privileged. The vituperatives announce the presence of a latent anger that goes unacknowledged and unconfessed. Verbal tirades against the fortunate only reveal the cancer of personal bitterness.

Bankruptcy comes in many forms. Without financial resources, an individual may suffer the pains of hunger and homelessness. Without emotional or spiritual capital, one may collapse under the weight of self-imposed envy, thereby sentencing oneself to the misery of malice, sarcasm and rancor. Today, there is no shortage of people willing to join the discordant ensemble of disgruntled envy. In our floundering economy, there is a fanatical army of envious and dissatisfied souls who cannot make sense of their pain unless they are blasting the blessed. Rather than debate and discuss the ideals and principles that lead to a better life, they’d rather play in the unproductive mud of slander, belittlement and defamation. Nothing salves the soul better than a well-articulated invective against a well-known stranger who withholds the key to my personal happiness. The power of this illusion is intoxicating and troubling.

I hope to rise above all the pettiness that swirls around in my own life. I’d prefer to live in the light of inspiration rather than resentment.  One feeds my soul, the other shrinks it. If you think this is political, then you’ve missed the point. It’s personal. As you raise your voice against those you claim to hate, thereby exposing your envy and bitterness, you pay a high price for an attitude leading to your own demise. The bitter and dissatisfied voices have clearly revealed that it’s much easier to blame the fortunate than it is to help the unfortunate. Besides, we all need an ally in our hostility in order to assuage the pain of our nagging discomfort and self-hatred.

I’m going into the kitchen now to prepare a tasty dish of tuna fish pasta. Someone more fortunate than me is probably eating steak for dinner. Don’t you hate that?