The Grass Is Always Greener: A Syndrome

 

"Grass is Greener" Syndrome - noun - the thought that there is always something better elsewhere, so rather than experiencing security, stability, and satisfaction in the present environment, there is the feeling that there is more or better elsewhere, and anything less than ideal is not acceptable (psychcentral.com).

syndrome - noun - a condition characterized by a set of specific symptoms (Google). 

I learned something new today: the aforementioned syndrome, GIGS. Previously, I had thought 'The grass is always greener" was strictly a proverb that applied to some dreamers who have a difficult time committing to person, place, or thing, or accepting (figuratively) the type of grass or even weeds and their shades of green in their own backyards or spaces. (I read somewhere once that there are about three hundred hues of green, but humans can only perceive a fraction of them. Which might mean that the person suffering from the syndrome will more or less, never be satiated. And yes, I am trying to be witty here.) 

After just spending nearly a week in SoCal with my thirty-something daughter, I have come to the unsettling conclusion that she suffers from the malady, GIGS. Her life-long dream has always been to live in the Los Angeles area as her passion–anything and everything having to do with making movies–primarily lies there. Before deciding to attend UCLA for her MBA in the field of entertainment, she had lived and worked in New York City, yet another location associated with dreams and dreamers and the entertainment industry. She was contented for a relatively short period of time before she lost the occupation wielding contentment and was catapulted feet first into two other jobs, one after the other, that could never quite equal the first. Looking west, she saw blue skies (literally) and the potential for verdant professional landscapes that the "magical" albeit black-and-white New York could not give her on a regular basis. And Central Park just wasn't the answer in terms of providing the ultimate green space. Now that she is fully ensconced comfortably in LaLa Land, where everything seems to be quite perfect (except for the freeways and "crazy" drivers on them) and green since they have had a lot of rain this past year, she misses New York. Ugh. GIGS. 

Do you have an adult kid who has this syndrome, too? If so, what advice do you give him/her/them, or every time that said relation complains, do you just make a sour face and shrug exaggeratedly with frustration knowing that unless you are on FaceTime (or the equivalent), she or he or they can't see you?

Yet for every problem, there is a solution, or so sayeth this optimist. For my daughter, it might be to find a job that is consistently propelling her back and forth like a tug-of-war between the two locations, which is not impossible to find, apparently, since many communications-oriented companies have offices in both cities. I am praying she finds this solution as I am tired of the whining from her end and the unattractive grimaces and vehement shrugging on my end.

Hopefully, you, personally, are not a victim of GIGS. If you are, just remember "no matter where you go, there you are." 

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Gullibility and the Royal Scam

 

gullibility - n. - a tendency to be easily persuaded that something is real or true. 

Could it be that we are ensconced in the era of gullibility? 

My first real encounter with the theme of gullibility on a large scale in literature came in 1985 when I was teaching Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to my tenth-grade students at an all-girls Catholic school. Just in case you have either 1. never heard of the tome or 2. read it so long ago that you remember nothing about it, it is a seething satire of humanity in 1885 (exactly one hundred years before my experience with it). Twain (a.k.a. Sam Clemens) depicts his own society as hopelessly, haplessly gullible so that they believe just about every nonsensical deed done and reported, even the most ridiculously farfetched. Sound familiar? Well, as I have probably mentioned before, human nature doesn't change, just technology. 

And despite a preponderance of said technology (A.I.), we have no more common sense than we ever had, falling for every royal scam out there, even political ones, not that that is surprising since politicians have been pulling the wool over both bespectacled and 20/20 eyes since the beginning of organized time. Mendacity is just the rule of thumb in that club. In some states, people have come down to voting for the most gifted of all con artists so that they can con their colleagues into whatever it is they want more effectively and efficiently and most likely unlawfully. (Huh? Is this really the right way to rationalize, my fellow Americans?)

As I continue to sell, sell, sell on Facebook, I am coming across more and more scammers, who, frankly, aren't terribly bright themselves. In case you want to sell anything on FB Marketplace, beware of the potential buyers who act like they are interested and turn around and ask for your phone number. Since Messenger is the rule of form, any other variation of communication is unnecessary. I'm guessing that once the charlatans obtain the numbers from the gullible, they sell them. (Never give out your phone number to anyone you don't know personally because your phone number can open many doors to your identity that you would rather leave shut and bolted.) The other day, a more sophisticated crook tried to hoodwink my daughter via Venmo. He nearly convinced her that his "business" account would credit her account $250, $200 of which she would need to send back since the item for sale was priced at $50. As you have probably already guessed, the deal wound up being bogus. He tried to scam her into believing that his account had been depleted of the amount, which she then owed him when in fact her account had never been credited. Seller, beware! These grifters are pretty convincing. But they can fool some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time. Be the latter, not the former.

The moral of the story is, of course, try not to be gullible. What is perhaps easier than honing common sense is not to trust anyone. Pretend that everyone, even the leading Republican presidential candidate, is not worthy of your certitude. If you were to do this, you'd feel a lot safer, more confident, and our democracy would be a lot better off :). 

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