51 of 365
Envy.
The most pointless of the seven deadly sins.
This photo needs an explanation. I'm generally not prone to envy. I grew up in a home of very limited means, so I think I figured out very early that envying what someone else had was not at all effective in terms of getting something for me.
The photo I'm holding was taken during my first year in Japan. I was teaching in a 2-year vocational college and after school it was very common for the teachers and the administrative staff to socialize. There was one incredibly beautiful office clerk named Yokoyama, who I had a huge crush on. Although we often talked and went out in groups, I never asked her out because she was clearly out of my league, and it was rumored that she was sleeping with the general manager of the school. So, I dated other women and just marked her up as unattainable.
Well, that summer I spent a month traveling in Indonesia. When I got back to Tokyo, I went out for a drink with Phil, my best friend at the school. Now Phil and I regularly went out drinking together and we made quite an effective team. He was tall, good-looking and extremely social. I wasn't so much, but I could speak Japanese fairly well. So, he would attract the girls and I would talk to them. And Phil wasn't the least bit inhibited by the fact that he had a wife and child. Anyway, Phil and I go out to a quiet little izakaya after the first day back at school and he tells me he's been sleeping with Yokoyama the whole summer. He said he just dropped by the school during the summer and asked her out and she said yes. I was just crushed by the news. The feeling of envy I felt was physically painful. I don't know that she would have gone out with me if I'd asked her, but just the knowledge that it was at least a possibility just devastated me.
So anyway, that's how this photo relates to envy.
51 of 365
Envy.
The most pointless of the seven deadly sins.
This photo needs an explanation. I'm generally not prone to envy. I grew up in a home of very limited means, so I think I figured out very early that envying what someone else had was not at all effective in terms of getting something for me.
The photo I'm holding was taken during my first year in Japan. I was teaching in a 2-year vocational college and after school it was very common for the teachers and the administrative staff to socialize. There was one incredibly beautiful office clerk named Yokoyama, who I had a huge crush on. Although we often talked and went out in groups, I never asked her out because she was clearly out of my league, and it was rumored that she was sleeping with the general manager of the school. So, I dated other women and just marked her up as unattainable.
Well, that summer I spent a month traveling in Indonesia. When I got back to Tokyo, I went out for a drink with Phil, my best friend at the school. Now Phil and I regularly went out drinking together and we made quite an effective team. He was tall, good-looking and extremely social. I wasn't so much, but I could speak Japanese fairly well. So, he would attract the girls and I would talk to them. And Phil wasn't the least bit inhibited by the fact that he had a wife and child. Anyway, Phil and I go out to a quiet little izakaya after the first day back at school and he tells me he's been sleeping with Yokoyama the whole summer. He said he just dropped by the school during the summer and asked her out and she said yes. I was just crushed by the news. The feeling of envy I felt was physically painful. I don't know that she would have gone out with me if I'd asked her, but just the knowledge that it was at least a possibility just devastated me.
So anyway, that's how this photo relates to envy.