poverty consciousness ...

I have just had a very interesting meeting with someone. We were talking about music, and songs, and the conversation veered to Celine Dion. Out of the blue, my acquaintance said, "Oh, what a crazy woman she is!" Since English is not this person't first language I thought I misunderstood the accent, and that he had actually said what a 'creative' woman she is ... even as I was tossing a coin in my head between the two, wondering what he'd said. Then I asked him -- "Oh CRAZY," he repeated - "she's crazy." Quite amazed at this attack on the poor unsuspecting Celine, I asked him why he'd said that, and he said, "Just look at her! She's finished her five year stint at Las Vegas ... and now without stopping to take a breather she's going off on a world tour." I was beginning to find his tirade very amusing and I started laughing ... thinking, here he was, investing so much of his energy and passion into what Celine Dion should or shouldn't do, whereas even if his advice was free, she would not be interested in this man, or care about what he had to say. I said, helpfully, "Well, she's a singer -- an artiste ... and she's doing what she knows to do best. What's the problem with that?" He went on in the same urgent tone, that she had all the money in the world - she has enough money to do what she wants, she's finished a five year contract... she should now sit back and relax. Her husband looks so old - could obviously do with some attention from her ... she has a son to take care of -- why is she hankering after more money, and more fame? Then he adds that he thinks it's because she wants her son to witness the adulation of her fans, and the world at her feet -- the barrage went on and on. I, by now, was laughing uncontrollably ... peeved, he said, "At least I'm making you laugh! But why are you laughing?" I told him if he offered his advice free to Celine Dion she wouldn't want it, and why was he so concerned anyway ... why did he think it was any of his business -- and then he smiled a bit and said, well, if she doesn't want a vacation, she can give me some of her money to go on vacation! A-HA - now we're talking, I thought ... This person is just plain jealous of Celine's money. Facing him squarely I said that I'd heard many people in these parts didn't like her much because they were very jealous of 'this ordinary girl who ended up doing so well in life' - they didn't give her any credit for how hard she'd worked ... and he admitted that was true. And I wondered if it had sunk into him that it was true of him too, and that he was jealous of all that she is, and she has.

The convoluted games our minds play with us are so intriguing. To cover plain raw jealousy, this man made such a story about all the reasons Celine Dion should stay home ... and how he listed all the reasons to prove she was a frivolous, irresponsible woman ... WOW!!!

Next time we catch ourselves getting caught up in someone else's story would be a good time to stop and turn our attention to ourselves: count our blessings ... make a mental list of things to write in our gratitude journal, and finally, if ready for this next step, explore and list the ways, and reasons, you experience jealousy. It might be helpful to list names of people (family, friends, celebrities) who you are jealous of, and then list why you're jealous of them. Why else, beside jealousy, would we get caught up in someone else's story? And it would do well to remember, being jealous is yet another symptom of having a poverty consciousness ...

Kiki ;-)
P.S. My request to those who 'borrow' from this blog is to please give adequate credit to the source of the borrowed information - whether me, or books and people I quote from. Thank you.