Why is the grass greener?

We've all heard the phrase, "the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence." But why is it greener? Why do things look so good from outside? I think I've figured it out, at least from my perspective.

Things look better elsewhere because we don't have the full story. All we're seeing of any given person's situation at any given time is a "snapshot" of what it's like to be them right here, right now. Not "the work that led up to this point", not the effort put into it, not the "putting in their time", not the day-to-day drudge. We don't see any of that. All we see is the big shiny sparkly thing they have that we'd like to have, or the (perceived) lack of icky drudgy thing that we DO have.

This goes for everything, really. Other people have more vacation time than I do, for example. While I may envy their vacation time, what I don't see is that they put in time for 15 years to "earn" that amount of vacation time, or the reduced paycheck because it's unpaid, or whatever other modifications they have.

Some people think my work schedule is pretty darn good - my employer allows me to work 4 ten-hour days so I can spend an extra day with my family every week. Every Friday off? Wow, that looks great, right? Well, this too can be yours if you're willing to show up at work at 6am and work till 4 every day. And don't forget - short weeks must be made up for somehow, so sometimes there's some 12-hour days. Still sounds like the same great package? I sure do think so, but you might decide it's not as Shiny as you thought, hey?

I remember a sermon by our pastor that brought this up, only he was talking about "crosses we bear". We may look at someone else's "cross" (whatever their burden may be) and think, "Wow, I sure do wish I had that problem instead of mine. That is no problem for me! I could deal with that super easy!" Well, of course - and that precise reason is why THAT (whatever it is) isn't your burden to deal with! We don't know how difficult it is for someone else to deal with a burden, or present a Happy Face, or have that "Green Grass" - all we see is the superficial, snapshot-in-time instance of RIGHT NOW. What we see is not what really is. What we see is a small portion of what is, and we might be astonished to see what the Real Picture is. Every interaction, every bit of information, all of those things are like one little dot of paint on a canvas. Enough dots, all ganging up, can create a picture.
We have to remember that all we're seeing is a single dot. One single point in time. One single snippet of information in an otherwise busy, full life. Things are seldom as they seem. Hopefully we can remember this and realize that other peoples' burdens are not nearly as invisible, nor as easy-to-bear, as we may think.