Friday, October 16, 2009

This is actually Reogan's idea

Well, sort of. It took him awhile to get around to it (when I asked him for help), but I technically guessed what he was talking about. I'm going to do a seven-week series on the seven deadly sins, which are Envy, Gluttony, Greed, Lust, Pride, Sloth, and Wrath. I'll do them as listed, so this week's topic is envy.

Envy is a relatively easy term to understand. It basically means "jealousy", but with another connotation. (I'll confess: I'm getting most of this from Wikipedia. All hail online encyclopedias!) When one is envious, he or she may have self-esteem issues, which causes him or her to have envy for the thing they think that they lack.

That was a confusing sentence... let me try again with an example. Say I am envious of Reogan's ability to write as much as he does. Which I sort of am, by the way--but not exactly! I am jealous of his writing ability, not envious. If I was envious, I would feel inferior about my own writing. Which I don't.

So why would this be considered a "deadly sin"? Well, when you are envious of something, you don't want the other person to have what you envy. In the Catholic Church, this is a big no-no. Thus, this sin is worse than any other sins that they would consider "minor."

Why do you think envy is a deadly sin? For that matter, do you think envy is a deadly sin?

6 comments:

Elphaba said...

I don't know WHY this went up now. I accidentally did post it today, but I edited it to make it come up on Friday! Grrr... Sorry about that, everyone.

And if this comment confuses anyone, here's the story: even though the blog says that this post went up on Friday, Sept. 16th, it really went up today (Wednesday, Sept. 14th). Just wanted to clarify.

Met said...

umm... we're in the month of October, aren't we?

Reogan said...

Fixed ;)

Elphaba said...

Oh, whoops... duh... Heh... Didn't notice that. Thanks for the fix, Reogan.

Reogan said...

Envy is a very human emotion, and it causes people to strive for excellence, though for the wrong reasons. For example, as a writer, I blog to sharpen my abilities so that one day I may be mentioned in the same reverent tones that are used to speak of Shakespeare, Lovecraft, or Tolkien. Is my writing then partially inspired by a desire to surpass the greats? Yes. Does that mean I'm really a bad person? Totally.

Reogan said...

Whatever became of this? It was one of the better things you did.