ENVY doesn’t become you.

There’s an anonymous quote that says,

“Envy is a pain of mind that successful men cause their neighbors”

Early this morning a San Diego Chargers running back was shot multiple times by an unknown assailant while stopped at an intersection in Cheltenham, PA. He escaped with his life…barely and is in stable condition. In fact a Yahoo News article stated that in the last six years, three Chargers players have been involved in shootings with two of them being likely victims of an attempted car-jacking.

Envy is a most interesting vice exposing the avarice that consumes the hearts of many. When athletes are slain in robberies or home invasions I can’t help but think that envy is the culprit. Perhaps high school is the last real place of parity. I’m a West Covina Bulldog, Class of 1993. We were all equal, cheering at the same football games and laughing at the same jokes. We might have answered the question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” the same way. But parity dissipates quickly after the traditional four-year stint of upper-secondary education. From menial work-to-Junior college-to-Ivy League University parity expires and tiered existence becomes more pronounced. In other words, the homie you went to school with could be the crab in your barrel because you went on to greater things while he stayed in the town you grew up in with no education, sense of purpose or proper moral ethic.

Crabs in a barrel are said to climb over one another trying to escape. The problem is that they disregard the crab above them and and the cyclical result is that nobody wins. All the crabs stay in the barrel and sooner or later they all end up at the crab shack. Here’s a principle: There’s always two sides to envy. Victim and Victim. If you want what others have you’ll eventually turn the success of others into an excuse to destroy them and in turn destroy yourself. If you are envied by others, the attention you bring to yourself…the pride, the cars, the flare…could make you a target. The world is green with envy but ironically nothing green grows from it. High profile athletes, artists, executives, etc. have a power they’ve probably never acknowledged – that of educating others, dying to selfish obsessions and remaining humble enough to keep the crabs at bay. Boo envy.