The Grass is Greener — Where?
by Susan
Summer is here, and the kids are out of school. Yay. Oh, the bliss.
Yesterday, I planned to stay home and get things done around the house. Let the kids OD on Star Trek reruns for a change. But toward the end of the day, my 12-year-old son got an attack of the whines. “Let’s get out of the house. I need to get out of the house and go DO something!” Oh really?
Today, I planned a day of errands, mostly to get the same son prepared for his backpacking trip next week. We were away from home for hours as we attempted to get Boy Scout medical forms signed by doctors; purchase hiking pants, neoprene socks, freeze-dried dinners, walking sticks, and duct tape from a variety of shops; sign up for swim lessons at the desired pool; have a Chipotle’s lunch to revive our flagging energy; squeeze in a haircut for my daughter; and reward everyone with a stop at the library and the pizza shop.
Guess who had this to say at several points along the way: “Let’s please go home. I just wanna go hooooome.”
Even when we get what we wish for, it’s rarely what we truly want. There’s always something more, better, different, and just slightly out of reach that would make us perfectly happy — right?
Tags: desire, greener grass, happy, satisfaction, wish
June 28th, 2009 at 10:25 pm
My father-in-law had a poster that showed the intersection of two barbed-wire fences, making four pastures. And in each of the four pastures stood a cow with her head through the fence, eating grass from another pasture. No caption was needed.
I’ve often wondered, though, about the differences between wanting something more and being dissatisfied with what we have. In the poster mentioned above, the grass in each field was not only all fine, it was really all the same field, the same grass. Is our dissatisfaction with what we have caused by selfishness, by insecurity, by ungrateful hearts, or are we just dumb enough to think that what we have is insufficient compared to what we might have?
On the other hand, there is within many people the desire to want more. That doesn’t always mean more material goods, though it often does. In a very positive sense, that group might include Paul the Apostle, who planted a church then moved on. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of his detractors accused him of being a “grass is greener” kind of guy.