The neighbour’s grass

Fr. Livio Tonello, director

In summer the sea and mountains, lakes, hills, gardens and the all nature seem to smile. In winter many plants stop growing or slow down, in spring nature puts on new garb, and in summer we enjoy scented flowers blooming and long sunny days. How many flowered balconies and well looked after gardens we admire! It is like a competition to make your home more beautiful with a bit of pride. The healthy competition inspires us to do our best. But could it become jealousy in the worst case? Because as we say the neighbour’s grass is always greener. This idiom may mean that other people always seem to be in a better situation than you; it encapsulates the human quality of always wanting something different than what you have. It makes me think about the incapacity to appreciate the good around us and to denigrate the others for not appreciating the good they do. It can be dramatic if this happens in the world context as in boundary disputes: adverse possession claims for economic reasons, to establish political supremacy... In this case the neighbour’s grass is not only greener but more tempting, more attractive... and the neighbour becomes a…