Snow White, and a superior strategy for the evil queen

January 7th, 2019

Jealousy, like any other feeling, is good. Repressing feelings is unwise. Feelings are always healthy. It’s our judgement of what we feel what’s often flawed, and unhealthy: This feeling is “good”, this feeling is “bad”, “I shouldn’t feel this”, “I should feel that”. Crap!

I also feel jealousy, sometimes about socially accepted things, other times about petty things, and I’m learning not to judge myself for it, because the problem is never what I feel, but rather what I do as a result of my feelings.
I must not love everyone, I must not be happy about everything I do, I must not like everything that happens in the world. Life is not about aiming for a state of orgasmic ecstasy, heavens!
Being compassionate, and generous is not necessarily about feeling compassionate, and generous, but about acting compassionate, and generous.

I do empathize with the feelings of the evil queen in Snow White’s tale. The main difference between the evil queen, and myself lies in my superior brains! Human brains are there to harmonize feelings and actions in such a way that we remain true to ourselves, e.g. feeling what we feel without regrets, while we end up doing the right thing for ourselves, and our environment.

If the evil queen had brains, authentic leadership skills, and a bit of spiritual training, she’d never order to kill Snow White. Here’s a superior strategy for you, your evil majesty:

• It’s OK to feel jealousy, and hate, and rage about that Snow White bitch. Don’t repress, or condemn your feelings. Scream, and shout, and howl, and throw your shoes, and the crown at the nasty looking glass, if you feel like it.
• After that, you’ll pant, come down, and stay put for a while. Take the time to let go of the rage, without making any decision. Assess your options and chances of success. What happens if you succeed in killing Snow White? Will this help you lead a successful life? How will you deal with your enemies? Will you be able to sleep at night without a security team? Assume that you let her live. How would you feel? What’s the worst case? Why are you so afraid of Snow White’s beauty and youth? Eventually she’ll also grow old and get wrinkles… Where does the deep ache in your heart really come from? Would you solve it if you get rid of her?
• Eventually you’ll decide to praise and support Snow White, help her grow, grow yourself together with her, and develop a relationship with her. You have no guarantees about this relationship, because we know the unpredictable ways of the universe. But you’re clever, and you won’t expect much in return. You don’t need her to live your life. You’ll be pragmatic and organize a few reasonable agreements with Snow White. Otherwise, you’ll let things flourish. According to good old taoist wisdom, leadership is not about controlling and forcing things to go our way, dragging people behind, or below, us. Enlightened leadership is about inspiring and leading by example, and letting things run their natural course, without imposing our will on them.
• Continue living your life, being true to yourself, allowing yourself to feel what you feel, and to throw shoes at the wall from time to time.
• Maybe you’ll develop a beautiful relationship with Snow White after all. In any case it will be a healthy relationship for the benefit of both parties, because you’ll have ensured to be open, just, and tolerant, and this attitude always pays off, sooner or later.
• The probability is high that you, your evil majesty, lead a successful life if you follow this strategy.

I leave it to you, clever people, to adapt this strategy as required, and apply it to further scenarios in life, business, or politics. 

See the following thread as a business example which can be easily extrapolated to state politics: