Freedom Friday 4/1/16
April 1 in Freedom Friday
A commercial on TV, it might be for a lawn fertilizer or something, I don’t know, anyway, a commercial shows two neighbors in their front yards. One laments the poor growth of his yard. The other neighbor tries to console by espousing the fortune cookie wisdom that “the grass is always…” before suddenly stopping, realizing that his green grass literally is the source of his neighbor's depression.
This ad, probably in an attempt just to be punny, unintentionally prompts many important ideas about self, one of them being perception.
I propose that the green yard next door is in actuality responsible for zero of the depression. Instead, it’s the feelings of comparison and assumed judgement that create the sadness.
‘We’re neighbors, we’re basically the same. Why are our lawns so different? It’s almost the exact same dirt but his lawn is better. Maybe he’s just be better all around.’
But, once we reach the realization that the neighbors thoughts on the lawn have no actual affect on us we grow free of the perception of his judgment. (Unless the neighbor in some way tampered with the grass, then there’s a whole legal recourse that should be investigated, but barring that, the neighbor and the neighbor’s lawn don’t bear any responsibility.)
Practically, you only possess two options if you want a different result. To either do more or do less. If you feel you’ve done enough then you should be indifferent to any jealous feelings. If you feel that you need to do more, didn’t room to do more exist before seeing the lawn next door? A person confident in decisions would not need the added influence of the neighboring property to change things.
In fact, thinking further about this advertisement, a confident, self assured person should not buy this product at all. This product only appeals to lacking and flaws in your self confidence. Paraphrasing another commercial, “Don’t be like…” jealous and coveting you, be like confident you! Your yard is good enough the way it is. You do you.