Envy

Why are some people so susceptible to envy? To the point where it becomes a poison.

I am happy for others when things go well for them. 

The friend who found $41,000 in a woodstove in his house? I was thrilled to hear that story as many times as he wanted to tell it. I felt good for him.

When someone gets their dream job, I'm genuinely happy for them.

Even when someone is excited about a new tattoo. I hate tattoos (when excessive), but I can be happy along with someone who is happy about getting yet another one.

When anyone gets a new car, a new house, a good relationship, another gun, or when their missing pet returns, I'm happier for having heard about it. Envy doesn't control me, even if I lack what they have.

It doesn't mean I wouldn't like to experience similar good things. But trying to rob someone else of their joy, or minimizing it to bring them down, doesn't make me any happier. I can't even imagine being like that.

The existence of billionaires doesn't hurt me.
Someone else's good luck doesn't cause me to have bad luck.
Someone else's happiness- as long as they don't get happy by violating the rights of others (and I have met those people)- doesn't take away from my own happiness.

I would never seek to use the political means to bring someone else down just because they have something I lack. That's the politics of envy.

Yet, this sometimes seems like the foundation of political government.

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Thank you for reading.
What do you think? Value for value? 

If not, that’s OK.