Jealousy is Hardly Flattering

I've mentioned, previously, a sort of short-handed version of the four noble truths. To paraphrase them crudely but in a way that retains the point; longing and desire for temporary satisfaction (such as that provided by 'stuff,' or anything else we long for) and aversion to temporary dissatisfactions, keeps us in the cycle of rebirth. I'm not a believer in rebirth, but I know a fundamental truth when I see one, and that is that our longing for, our desire for, things that are temporary, or rather meaningless, or unattainable, becomes a very dangerous manifestation and source of angst, or jealousy, or even madness, in worst case scenarios.

Alas, social media can make this an all too easy to fall into trap. When I see two people who I find interesting, whose works I find enjoyable, discussing with each other, on, say, Twitter, I wish I was involved, that I could pick their brains, that I could be apparent and recognized as part of the club, much like we wish we were the cool kids in school, or I wish I was not eating lunch in the cafeteria alone, such as I did.

But even the physical world, or that outside the internet, has its traps. When I see a group of people talking and laughing together at a restaurant, I wish I could be a part of it, such is my absence from social gatherings so complete and transfixed, that remembering the occasions when I did embark on such events requires going back years or even more than a decade in my life.

Death, of course, is the easy route, and if one does not believe in rebirth, then it matters little that nobody will be at your funeral, that nobody will care about your passing, because by then, you will be dead, and disposed of all truncated communal and affirmative pursuits. I suppose, in the scheme of the vastness of the universe, the miniscule timeframe of existence is meaningless even if one were to cure cancer.

That this post has little point, does nothing towards absolving feelings of displeasure, of longing, or jealousy, is worth considering. These words, like trillions and trillions of others, echo into the void, rendered meaningless and repetitive by smarter minds who already have shared them.