The hardest task in the world is to clear your mind of jealousy. You can shake your head until it spins like Poltergeist, but you just cannot shake it loose. It is like a fast growing cancer. Having been married a total of four times, I know this from first hand experience. I am happy to say that I had this malignant cancer with only one of my ex husbands. It seems to skip marital generations, so to speak. My first and third were easily forgotten. I forgot them quicker than an obama speech. My second was a different story.

Here is a DEAD GIVEAWAY sign of that dreaded disease that makes one green with envy. You hear their name and your ears tune in like an excited puppy dog when a can opener is in operation. You listen so closely to hear the conversation. You do this because you want to hear something negative about that person. You will even “shush” the person with whom you are speaking,  to hear the hopefully negative comment. If, by chance, it is a positive comment. Well damn,  you can think of something bad to say. Rain on his parade, baby! Don’t it feel good.

Then one day, after some time, the raining quits and the sun peeks through. You are able to see the good points in this person. In my case, he is actually one of the best people I have ever known. I will adamantly defend my third ex husband to anyone. I wish only the best for him, forever. Do you know why? I am no longer jealous. Time is chemo and I had me some. My current husband is a different story, I will “skin a woman like a catfish” over him.

Jealousy is most often found when people are in competitive positions. Here is how to determine the jealous person from the person whom they wish to emulate. We will coin two phrases here.  Jealouser (noun) A person who is jealous of another. Most likely works in a competitive field, no matter how small or insignificant.  Jealousee (noun) A person whom the jealouser tries to emulate. This person could not care less about the jealouser and his small insignificant hobby or business.

I hope I have been helpful today in this Tolley’s Topics lesson of:

IT PAYS TO INCREASE YOUR NEWLY COINED WORD POWER

-Sheila Tolley-