a one-sided game..

One day in school Sister Monica asked the children to write a composition on jealousy, and Gerry, a fifth grader, wrote this one:

“Jealousy is mine because I make it myself. I pick out some guy and go feelin’ jealous. Last year I picked Ricky Herrin to be jealous on. I just jelled and jelled on him because he made the first team and I didn’t. Boy! I jealoused him all year. Every time he made a touchdown and me sittin’ on the bench, I added another layer of jealousy to my growing stack. Finally, I decided that I hated Ricky. Boy! How I hated him all over the place!”

“Funny thing about the whole thing was that was that every time Ricky would speak to me when we met, and then when I barely nodded he just kept right on speaking. He even got me out of a nasty mess with the principal one day. I found out that Rick did not know that I was jelling on him, and then one day I says to myself: ‘What the heck! This guy doesn’t even know I’m sore at him. I’m forgetting the whole thing. I’m the only one that’s feeling bad about this mess.”

“Ricky and I are good buddies now, and I think that jealousy is a one-sided game. It’s like eating green apples, it doesn’t bother anybody but yourself, and you get an awful stomach-ache from it.” (Treasury of Catechism Stories)
Bk35.25