ferilor seges est alienis semper in agris

In thistle-hound-5670’s dream, they write about being with a lot of friends and flatmates in a house, very busy, then spying people across the way, on a parallel street who are also in their house very busily at work. The others seem to be working with such joy and intelligence and organisation; the dreamer and their friends are jealous. It seems they were pretty happy until they started marvelling at these parallel people.

The phrase “The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence” has its origin in some concern that one’s cattle might sneak out through the fence in favour of the neighbour’s tastier grass.  The sentiment has roots in various cultures. The Roman poet Ovid wrote “ferilor seges est alienis semper in agris” … “the harvest is always more fruitful in another man’s field.” 

Relatedly but different from our dreamer’s feelings, I started thinking about the expression, maybe more common in America,  “Keeping up with the Joneses,” which is more about feeling pressure to keep up with material possessions. Looking into it, it seems there were real Joneses! Elizabeth Schermerhorn Jones (related to the wealthy Astors as well as the writer Edith Wharton, not bad not bad) commissioned a nearly 8,000 square foot mansion in upstate New York on 80 acres of idyllic land overlooking the Hudson River. The mansion was insanely grand, so it’s no wonder people would aspire to keep up.

But what do you think of this?… Apparently by 2016 the castle was a crumbling ruin which sold for a mere $120,000.

The ghosts of the Joneses are probably haunting their way over into their neighbour’s tastier grasses now.