Some people are never satisfied. Rather than appreciating the wonderful things and people in their lives, they look with envy at people they believe have better lives than they do. If you want to be technical about it, they have the Grass is Greener Syndrome.
Books, movies, and even music echos the self-inflicted misery of envying other people. Their lives. Their success. The question is, do we have the whole story or just what we assume to be true about them?
A 1981 song by Rick Springfield, Jessie’s Girl, is a perfect example of someone experiencing pointless envy. It drives the guy crazy to watch his best friend fall in love. Why? Because he wants what the other guy has.
2011, Wild Thing, by Disco Crash is a song about a horny guy, but with a twist.
“So we journey to her house, one thing led to another
I key the door, we go hit the floor
I looked up, and it was her mother
I didn’t know what to say, I was hanging by a string
She said, hey, you two. I was once like you
And I like to do the wild thing.”
We cannot help but wonder. Is the mother a cougar? Does she want to jump the guy or join the couple? She did say “like” in the present tense. Nowadays, we must be specific, or things can get dicey in a hurry. The song sounds like an Oedipus Complex with a twist.
Of course, nothing can get dicier than the original Oedipus Rex, who gave the complex mentioned above its name. He fell in love with his mother. Poor guy should have left the castle more often with his buddies and gone what passed for barhopping back then. Mommy-love is unsavory. If you have not read the play by Sophocles, you should check it out.
A local radio station read an email from a woman that makes us wonder about our fellow humans on this planet.
The guy she married has gotten friendly with her mother. The mother comes for extended visits, and hubby and mommy are drinking buddies. The young wife feels like a third wheel and wonders if they talk about her after she goes to bed. What prompted her email to the local DJ is the last conversation she had with her mother.
“You need to step up your sexy if you what to keep your man,” momma suggested.
When the DJ finished reading the email on the air, countless questions popped into this writer’s fertile mind.
Did the husband confide about personal things to his mother-in-law? Did he turn to the woman hoping she would talk to her daughter about the bedroom situation? What kind of man whines about his sex life to his wife’s mother? Perhaps he considers the woman a second mother, or are things less savory between them? Was the mother-in-law a cougar, experiencing a grass is greener moment regarding her son-in-law?
Whatever the situation between this odd menage a trois, there is an elephant-sized communication problem. Too much sharing between the woman’s husband and mommy dearest. Not enough communication between the couple.
If things do not get straightened out between the couple, their possible future paths could be problematic. Does the mother’s chat with her daughter lead to a long-overdue discussion between the couple and a stronger marriage? Or, does the guy divorce his wife and marry her mother?
As we mentioned in a recent column, humans and animals have more in common than we like to believe.
For example, a cow sticks her head between the gap in the barbed wire fence to chow down on the grass on the other side. Before long, the rest of the herd follows suit because Eloise must be onto something delicious. None of them care if they get nicked by the barbed wire because they have their eye on what they believe is the ultimate meal.
People behave the same way. A supposed female friend seduces and steals the guy you thought was yours. But after the initial heartbreak heals, you may conclude they deserve each other.