Envy

Based on my friend Jan's recent BLOG, "Truth Difficulty by The Roving Typist," I wrote this comment: 

Why do these kind of stories always move me to tears. When I hear about (or see) someone who takes the usual and makes it into the unusual, or takes the old and makes it new and different, I find myself being envious. 

Often I have said that I am "envious" or "jealous" of someone and have been chastised for the use of those words. I am told that it is a negative comment that means I resent the other person for having something that I do not. But that is not true, so I need to specify what I mean by “envious.” 

Read the following from Wikipedia and know that I mean “Benign Envy!” 

Envy (from Latin invidia) is an emotion which “occurs when a person lacks another’s superior quality, achievement, or possession and either desires it or wishes that the other lacked it” Bertrand Russell said that envy was one of the most potent causes of unhappiness. Not only is the envious person rendered unhappy by his envy, but they also wish to inflict misfortune on others. Although envy is generally seen as something negative, Russell also believed that envy was a driving force behind the movement towards democracy and must be endured to achieve a more just social system. However, psychologists have recently suggested that there may be two types of envy: malicious envy and benign envy—benign envy being proposed as a type of positive motivational force.

Now if you want to know of what I am most recently envious, click through to Jan's BLOG:
http://connectere.wordpress.com/2014/07/21/truth-difficulty-by-the-roving-typist/