TASK #16

April 18th--April 25th

THOU SHALT NOT...

"It is the final proof of God's omnipotence that he need not exist in order to save us."   Peter De Vries


One of the crappiest aspects of "sheltering in place" is the amount of time you have to spend at home with your family. Ok, I said it. It sounds terrible but it is the truth. 

In order that my wife and I and home-bound son don't tear each other apart like hungry wild wolves who just spotted a buffalo carcass, we have taken to spending part of each day in different rooms. 

My wife usually retreats to our bedroom and the comfort of Netflix; my son sits in the basement and facetimes with his girlfriend, and I
sit in the livingroom.

The arrangement works in the sense that we can't fight if we can't see each other, but it has me spending way too much time in my own head, which is not a very sensible or safe place for me to be sometimes.

Why? Because I start to sulk. Not about the coronavirus, not about my job, or lack thereof, but I sulk about the things that I DON'T have. And, given the shitty state of affairs--these are things that I will NEVER have. Like the Ford Flex that's sitting in my neighbor's driveway, or the John Deere Z355R 48 in. 22 HP gas dual Hydrostatic Zero-turn Riding Lawnmower that my cousin is so proud of that he started a whole Facebook page for it. Stuff like that.  

Now, my wife started to notice that the separation policy was putting me in WORSE mood, and being that she's not a person to keep things to herself, she said, "what the hell is wrong with you?" I mumbled and deflected, but after a while I told her what was bugging me and she shook her head and said, you don't want that stuff, you COVET it!

What the hell did that mean?

Later on I sat down and thought about what she said. No one uses the work "covet" much these days, and I thought about where I had heard it before.

It was the Ten Commandments. There are two commandments that mention the word covet: Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, and thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's goods. I don't care much for my neighbor's wife, who is sharp-tongued and once asked my wife (about me): "what do you see in him anyway?

So I don't covet her, but I do covet his goods, as in the Ford Flex. And my cousin's John Deere, and other things that other people have that I don't have--so I wrote it all down--I made a list of all the things that I wanted that everyone else had, and it was a good sized list of things. Will it make me covet less?

I don't know, but at least it was out in the open.

TASK:

Go outside your house or apartment. Look around. Write down the stuff that you want, but other people have. Be precise. Do they same at work, at 
the gym, at the auto shop, at the movies... The list is going to be long an involved. Look at each item. Ask yourself why you want it, and if you 

deserve it, and if you can live without it. The results will surprise you. 

If you have a story to tell, or a comment to make, e-mail me at joedoebula@gmail.com