To put on public display a photo of your plate full of food on social networks means to give a damn about those who right now do not have such a plate in front of their noses, says Psychologies columnist Maria Golovanivskaya.
On my plate, the lobster is white and pink, the drops of lemon juice around are like dew, drunk by the sun, and the gluten-free lettuce leaf strives to lick my hand. We sit with so-and-so, we have dinner at the restaurant X. Photo. Facebook.
Or the boots. Bought yesterday. Photo. Lacquered, lilac, above the knee, with gold buckles. The photo and comment are posted by a plump blonde in her fifties, smart, actually, her son has recently entered the institute, and why does she post boots? From the fullness of being? “And here we are with the whole family on vacation in Paris,” my classmate, a middle-class businessman, was once a promising guy, booming in the same place. We stayed in the legendary five stars. Click. Admire.
Or. Bugaga! Walking with the boys on a picnic. Beer drank two tanks. – This is already a youngster showing off, reporting on a summer weekend in the fresh air. Everyone’s faces are unnaturally cheerful, their hugs are somehow strained, as if the arms and shoulders are not native, but attached, they pose as best they can, copy the stars. It seems like a photo report, but it seems like a boast. See what we are winners of life! The new sincerity is called – my friends console me in response to my grumbling: immodest, ugly. It’s not good to envy, others add with a smile, why don’t you like it if people feel good?!
Some, like me, envious, also can not stand it. They post an ad on their Facebook wall: those who will post food, out the door! Better than cats. Others, just evil, you see, people never like pictures in which others feel good. So that life does not seem like honey at all. Or maybe they are embarrassed too?
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- Beware: narcissism!
Sneakers are the opposite. Desperately like lucky people and comment, comment. “Oh, how handsome you are!” they write. Or: “Ah! How delicious it must be! You are always on top!” Or: “Guys, well done! Happy for you! Keep it up!”
It is not good to boast of one’s happiness, and there is no need to dissuade me. It is not good to inflate with a bubble, because there will always be someone with a needle and you will burst. Only the nouveau riche spit on the laws of the universe, it seems to them that a new branch of evolution begins with them. It starts with them and ends with them. Anyone who “lived and thought” knows about the bag and prison, and at the same time knows how destructive envy can be. The ancient Greeks talked about the envy of the gods. Like, you will boast, the gods will see and the tsap-scratch – they will take everything away. In the Russian tradition, there is also this: “The Lord nourished, no one saw, and whoever saw, he did not offend.”
But the matter is not only and not so much in the fear of envy. There is another catch in admiring your magnificent plate. Behind him is a categorical disregard for those who right now do not have such a plate in front of their noses. And a decent person should always remember such people, take them into account, keep their hardships in mind. A decent person cannot forget the misfortunes of others and boast of his well-being, so to speak, success in life.
Who among us has not risen high and fallen painfully on his face into the dust of the road? Which of us from this dust did not suddenly jump out there, which he could not even dream of? In one of our lives, we live many lives – both a prince, and a beggar, and Cinderella, and a stepmother – and not knowing, not remembering this is unforgivable stupidity.