The
statement “The grass is always greener on my neighbour’s lawn” could be said to
stem from a popular idiom that says “The grass is always greener on the other
side of the fence” which is said about people who never seem happy with what
they have and always think that other people have a better situation than they have
(Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary). Before analyzing and appraising the
whole sentence let me break it into two phrases: “The
grass is always greener” and “On my
neighbour’s lawn”, the former could be said to mean better comfort, living,
situation, circumstances etc something very positive while the latter tells of
the fact that it is not for you, it is for a neighbour (contemporaries,
colleagues, enemies, friends etc). The saying is also literally true as it has
been demonstrated by James Pomerantz in a scientific article on “The grass is always
greener: An Ecological Analysis of an Old Aphorism” (1983). This scholar proves
that optical and perceptual laws alone will make the grass at a distance look
greener to the human eye than the blades of a grass perpendicular to the
ground.
Furthermore,
with the background above, the thought patterns of a cross section of people in
the world today is captured excellently. Many people are of the view that the
situation of life of the person(s) around them would have been more befitting
than their own condition. There is a myriad of situations to which this saying
can apply, but worthy of note are these three different situations: someone who
is envious of the exploit of the neighbour (covetous and greedy), someone who
has a low self esteem (very unappreciative of the works of his hands) and someone
who is not happy with his present condition; but he is encouraged by the
exploit of his neighbour, hence wanting to do better. It can also be used for
consolation, you complain to a friend of your status, comparing yourself to
some else; the person says this to mean that’s how life is.
However
for the purpose of this piece I will be focusing on the part of someone who is
just sad about his situation, and as a result being blinded by the supposedly
greener pasture on the neighbour’s lawn, not allowing him to see opportunities
that are available on his own lawn. The insinuation of this saying to real life
situation is relevant as a result of the fact that people are always comparing
themselves to other people. Majority of the times assertion of a greener grass
is pictured, as regards the perspective in which I have decided to focus my write-up, it is
viewed from a rose coloured spectacles, downplaying all the positives available
on your own lawn. Looking at a situation from afar off can most times not be as
rosy as it looks when you get closer i.e. getting a better understanding of the
situation, sometimes the person you count as having greener grasses on his/ her
lawn might see you in the same vein. It is human nature to want what you do not
have, but in doing this we most times fail to acknowledge the complexities and
challenges that come along with getting that thing which you do not have.
One
of the major themes of this saying is envy and it blinds your eyes to what you
have in common with a counterpart, and only opens your eyes to the things you
think sets him above you not particularly to motivate you towards a better
performance, but to engender strive through unhealthy competition. From the
above statement, it could be derived that both have a lawn, both lawns have
grass, the grass on both sides is green but what is being concentrated upon is
the feelings (either real or imagined) that the grass on the other side is
greener. “Where envy and selfish ambition exist, there you find disorder and
every evil” (James 3: 16). The above verse from the bible emphasises
the volatility of the situation, as it gives the opportunity for so many vices
to find their way into the state of affairs. The yardstick for measuring how green a grass is one of the most
subjective elements of this discussion, and one of the mistakes most people
make is measuring standards according to lifestyle but sincerely, there are
most times undertones available that are not visible to the human eyes.
For
instance, Ikechukwu wants to be like Paul because he (Paul) was born in a very
rich home. He comes to school with his driver every morning and rumour has it
that he is the owner of the car, uses a Blackberry Porsche and is one of the
brightest students in the class. Obviously the picture just painted looks like
a very green grass, but what people do not know is that Paul epileptic. To
Ikechukwu that is a lawn that is greener than his , because he is averagely
rich, enters cab to school and does not enjoy much pleasures as those by Paul,
hence he concludes, but is the grass on his lawn really greener? Or you have
not found the strength in your position to make sure you have a sweeter and
more interesting life as a result of the fact that you have allowed yourself to
focus solely of the freshness and beauty of another’s life, forsaking that
there is a possibility of making your life sweeter.
Most
people tend to see the flaws in themselves, but refuse to recognise the
admirable traits or favourable circumstances they possess. Another realistic
instance worthy of note is the fact: that Majority of the times, observers tend to
compare the Nigerian (African) media system with their counterparts in the
western media as regards objectivity without understanding the subjectivity of
the concept. As a regard of the way we have understood our society to be, it is
strongly believed that “Nothing good can come out from Nazareth” forgetting
that Jesus came out from Nazareth (from the Nathaniel and Jesus experience in the
bible). From that bias point of view everything that comes out of the Nigerian
society cannot be objective, blinding us
to the flaws prevalent in the western Media and crowning them “MR or MRS
Objective”, hence looking at our neighbours lawn as greener than ours. We
are so jealous of their achievements, without focusing on successes prevalent
in our own country such as the channels Television, NN24, Silverbird and The
Nations, NEXT (though Extinct) etc on print. Even the neighbours are still not
satisfied with their status as greener as exemplified in the Rupert Murdoch
“News of the World” scandal that led to the closure of the Newspaper.
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