Summary

This chapter is devoted to envy, an emotion that Archbishop Tutu begins by describing as inherent and natural to all human beings. Before returning to the Archbishop’s statement, Abrams offers some background information of the inherent nature of fairness and equality, suggesting that it is, in fact, inequality that leads to envy. Abrams claims that “envy doesn’t leave much room for joy” (137), meaning it is damaging to one’s mental well-being. While the Archbishop and the Dalai Lama agreed about the negative effects of envy, they disagreed about how to respond to it.

Archbishop Tutu begins his argument for how to respond to joy, ultimately concluding that there are three remedies for envy: gratitude, motivation, and reframing. Being thankful for one’s blessings in life, or using envy as a tool to better...