How jealousy destroyed a sisterhood but inspired a president: The story of Parvana and Masooma

　　In ancient Persian, “Parvana” means butterfly. Beautiful butterflies, colorful butterflies, romantic and free butterflies. “The Mountains Sing” is a book by the Afghan-American writer Hosseini. There is such a butterfly in it-a butterfly with broken wings.
　　Parvana has a twin sister, Masooma. Two sisters conceived in the same womb, like the North and South Poles of the earth, have led completely different lives since birth.
　　If fate has likes and dislikes, sister Masooma is the favored half, while Parvana is the hated half.
　　Masuma was born smoothly. She has a beautiful appearance and a docile temperament, and is deeply loved by everyone. Where is Parvana? When he was born, the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck and he almost died. As a baby, he tortured his mother to the point of exhaustion. As he grew up, he became short, fat, and dark-skinned, contrary to his sister’s beauty. The two little girls stood together. The elder sister was always the focus of the crowd, while the younger sister automatically became invisible as if she had been cast by magic. The strong contrast and everyone’s attitude gave birth to a seed called jealousy, and the watering of time made it flourish. Finally, the day before the marriage proposal came to fruition.
　　The two sisters fell in love with the boy Saboor at the same time. There is no doubt that most of the time, humans are visual animals. Sabur chose his sister as a matter of course. That day, on the tall oak tree in front of the door, the two sisters sat together on a thick branch. Masouma mentioned shyly that Saboor was coming to propose marriage. Yes, Saboor is coming to propose marriage. They will stare at each other affectionately, receive people’s sincere blessings, and her aloneness will be highlighted even more.
　　Jealousy took over Parvana’s pure heart and blinded her vision. Parvana put her hands on the tree trunk and sat down heavily on her butt. Masuma screamed, like a butterfly spinning, colliding, bouncing, and falling among the leaves, and then there was a clear and crisp sound of jade breaking – Masuma’s body almost folded in half. Masouma is paralyzed! You can imagine what awaits the sisters!
　　After Parvana took care of her paralyzed sister alone for several years, Masooma asked Parvana to abandon her in the endless yellow sand.
　　Covering his head, he sighed. I can’t help but think of Zhou Yu’s eternal sigh: “Since Yu is born, how can Liang be born?”
　　Jealousy, as defined in the dictionary: Resentment because others are better than oneself. It can be seen from this that the essence of jealousy is actually a selfish psychology, rooted in the soil of comparison. Comparing grades, appearance, wealth, status, power, family, children… everything can be the object of comparison. Your superiority sets off my loneliness. How can you not complain? How can you not be jealous?
　　The famous writer Yu Qiuyu once wrote: “Jealous people can criticize the envied person until they are worthless, but in fact, that is the object of their envy the most in their hearts.” Criticism is the sharp edge of words, and what’s more, jealousy and hatred will inevitably lead to Destroy others quickly.
　　Oddly enough, people are often jealous of those around them. For example, the famous Li Si and Han Feizi in history, Pang Juan and Sun Bin, Lu Pheasant and Madam Qi, Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang… all praise each other for strangers. Why is this happening?
　　First of all, it is because the people around you have more similarities with yourself, so they are more comparable! The so-called similarity means that the two have similar family backgrounds, similar educational environments, and even similar life goals and life circumstances… The worst thing is that they may be in the same social circle. All of this makes us think that our lives should be the same. But one day, you suddenly find that the other person has made great progress, but you are still standing still. As a result, you can no longer share the joy of the other person, and you feel a huge injustice. Every success of the other side highlights your failure. Jealousy arises from this.
　　Another more important reason for jealousy is competition. From an evolutionary perspective, jealousy is natural. Whether as animal beings or as social beings, we are faced with major issues of survival and reproduction from birth. However, resources are always limited. If you have more, I will inevitably have less.
　　Humans are social animals. No matter what, we always live in a certain circle. It is said that there are people who have rivers and lakes, and the rivers and lakes are vast. How can we not compare and fight? When you are compared with others, you are also compared with yourself; when you compete with others, you also compete with yourself.
　　When we inevitably fall into jealousy, we should know clearly: this is a normal emotion, accept it, and face it. Just like everything has two sides, if jealousy is allowed to grow unchecked, it will be a disaster. The paralyzed Masuma, Sun Bin whose legs were cut off, and Mrs. Qi who was made into a human pig are all examples of what has been done before, and ultimately harm others and themselves. On the contrary, we can also try to transform the power of jealousy into the belief of self-growth, as the ancients said: “Know your shame and then be brave” and “see the wise and think of others.” Because of comparison, we know our shortcomings; because of our shortcomings, we strive to move forward.
　　There is a famous story in the United States. When Charlie Rose was in middle school, because of his excellent conduct and academic performance, he received extremely high praise and expectations from the youngest and most prestigious teacher in the school, Miss Brown. At the graduation ceremony, Miss Brown unexpectedly expressed her personal wishes to Charlie by kissing him in public. Afterwards, many boys expressed dissatisfaction. One boy, out of strong jealousy, publicly accused Miss Brown of being partial. After graduation, Charlie was appointed by the president as the chief secretary in charge of publishing affairs in the White House due to his diligent work and outstanding achievements in the newspaper industry.
　　And the boy who once blamed Miss Brown for his intense jealousy was Henry Truman, who turned his jealousy into a force for progress and finally became the President of the United States. His first phone call after taking office was to Miss Brown. President Truman personally asked Miss Brown: “Am I worthy of a kiss from you now?” Of course, Truman was elected president four days after the graduation ceremony. Fourteen years ago. It is indeed open to question whether Truman was still thinking about Miss Brown’s kiss at this time. But it is undeniable that in this story, we see the powerful power of jealousy-it creates a legendary character.
　　Teacher Li Zhenxi said: “Our world needs both towering trees and boundless grass. You may not be the most beautiful, but you can be the cutest; you may not be the smartest, but you can be the most diligent; You may not be the richest, but you can be the most fulfilled; you may not be the smoothest, but you can be the most optimistic… In the future of life, you may not be able to become famous or have a family, or go down in history, but you can become one of the thousands of people in the same industry. The best among tens of millions of ordinary workers.”
　　He can move forward with determination and be content at the same time. If Parvana understood this truth, her and Masooma’s life would be different.