Game of Comparison

 

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Game of Comparison

This is the most dangerous and self-defeating game anyone can get into. This comes out of a desire to be one up on the next guy. If so and so has this or that, I should have something that is much more superior. This kind of mental attitude leads to grief in the long run, giving rise to stress or making one turn to short cuts and illegal means to get what one wants.

Just observe while driving in any upscale area of any city where many significant companies have their offices. We will invariably find around 150 to 200 men and women on the sidewalk, all well-dressed and obviously well-employed during lunchtime. We notice that they were not sitting in some nice place but buying hot dogs or any kind of available street fast food. While passing by we notice that no one is even talking to each other. All of them are holding something wrapped in paper and biting into it like hungry dogs. Human beings are supposed to eat with a little more aesthetics.

These are all well-to-do, largely young people who are working in some sought-after job. But this is how they eat, standing on the street side. Probably every day, their lunch is like this. If this is how we treat ourselves, if this is how we treat the food that we eat and the water that we drink, if this is how we treat the air that we breathe and all life around us, how can we be well? We cannot be well.

The only thing is we drive a more expensive car than our neighbour – that is the only wellness we know. We cannot know the joy of just being alive. When we do not know the joy of being alive, the thrill of driving a better car than our neighbour will slowly wear out, and we will become frustrated. As we grow old, we will grumble at everything. We will become irritable and stupid – we will not become wise. Look at the grandfathers today – they are definitely not wise. Most of them are not an image of wisdom but of irritability, cynicism, frustration, and depression. Or they have completely lost their memory and their mind because it has always been all about economy.

We should rise above this game of comparison and be content with what we have and to what we can reasonably aspire to. Contentment and success come with inner wellbeing. When one is calm from within, one is content and comparison with others becomes a non-issue.