About Jealousy (2)

 I previously reflected on the nature of jealousy, but realizing there was more to say, I decided to continue the discussion here.

When it comes to jealousy, the analogy of brain cells versus foot cells works well if the roles are distinct—but what happens when the roles are the same?

In other words, when two parties are in direct competition.

In such scenarios, there is a handful of winners and a vast number of losers.

The more attractive the goal, the greater the number of defeated contenders left in the wake—a veritable mountain of the fallen.

However, because the competition pushes rivals to hone their skills against one another, the overall standard inevitably rises. Consequently, the level of the eventual winner rises as well. And if that winner goes on to fulfill a role in society, their contribution to society naturally increases.

In short, competition boosts the performance of humanity as a whole.

Even those defeated contenders—who form that mountain of the fallen—indirectly raised the winner's level through the competition, thereby contributing to the overall improvement of human performance. So, their efforts were by no means in vain.

The winner stands there representing the entire field of players, including the losers.

It seems that life itself has adopted competition as a mechanism to elevate overall performance. After all, isn't that how we were born? The odds of a single sperm reaching the egg are one in tens or hundreds of millions—given the sheer number of sperm released in a single ejaculation. That’s a competition with odds of tens to hundreds of millions to one. So, the winning sperm is quite the superhero, isn't he?

So, while this might not offer much consolation, it remains a fact that even if your dream was shattered, you quietly contributed to the realization of someone else's dream and the elevation of overall performance.

Still... I would have preferred to be the winner. Naturally.

As for the defeated—that mountain of the fallen—the best approach is to move on and walk a different path with grace. There’s no helping it, after all; dwelling on it forever won't do any good. In reality, as a tiny cell within the "Greater Life," there are countless missions waiting to be fulfilled. After all, the human body is made up of some 37 trillion cells. And each and every one of them fulfills a specific role and carries out its mission. Since there are only a few billion humans in total, there ought to be plenty of work to go around. There are countless jobs that—while perhaps unassuming and out of the spotlight—are actually vital; the world simply wouldn't function without them. In fact, anything that can be called "work" is, by definition, something the world cannot do without.

We’ve ended up back at the topic of the "Greater Life," but I suppose that’s alright.

Guided by love and compassion

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