Here's kinda why I ask. Mostly I don't think I suffer much from envy, ... mostly. You got a big fancy house? Good for you! Drive a fancy car or truck? Man, wear it out (but don't drink and drive)? Say you have a hot wife who is low maintenance, loves you more than anything on this earth and who's primary goal in life is to keep you happy? Well that might be enviable except such a woman lives only in mythology, so if you make that claim, I assume you're lying and how ridiculous would it be to be envious of a lie!

However, it seems I am afflicted with envy when it comes to poaching. It's not that I have any desire to poach because I don't, it's more like I cannot stand the idea that someone is poaching on property that I'd like to be able to hunt but NOBODY is allowed to hunt. I'm not at all happy about this affliction and I really am mostly a "you do your thing and I'll do mine" kinda guy. I don't know why this affects me this way but if I'm being honest I have to confess that it does. I'm a follow the rules kinda guy. I don't believe in picking and choosing what rules or laws I'm going to follow (but I also confess difficulty with the posted speed limit). If I decide I will obey some rules/laws and ignore others as it suits me and everyone else does the same, well, we get anarchy. It's in my own personal interest to follow rules/laws that I don't like so that hopefully everyone else will do the same and we can all live in a peaceful society. Even when I don't like a rule it's not like I don't have recourse. If it's a law I can petition my legislative representatives to have the law changed and if enough people agree that the law is bad then it can be changed. If it's a hunting club rule I can do the same or find another club. I don't however, have the right to ignore it just because I don't like it or because somebody or even everybody else is doing it.

So when I hear a shotgun go off in the woods behind my house at 7:00 am on a Sunday morning smack in the middle of turkey season, I know that someone is on Birmingham Water Works Board property poaching turkey!!! But what bothers me is not so much that there's some dirty scumbag outlaw out there who knows exactly what he is doing, that is, he didn't drift inadvertently over a property line, but that I can't do the same thing without violating my conscience.

I guess it comes down to this, I can't seem to stop coveting (coveting being little different than envy) the hunting privileges for that property but I don't and never have hunted it.