Today’s quotation:
Pride may be allowed to this or that degree, and else we cannot keep up our dignity. In gluttony, there must be eating, and in drunkenness, there must be drinking: ’tis not the eating, nor the drinking that is to be blamed. So with pride.-John Selden
Today’s Meditation:
I’m proud of quite a few things, but I try to keep that pride in check. It can be my undoing if I allow it to grow too strong. Pride in and of itself isn’t much of a problem to anyone and can be a genuinely positive feeling. When we give it too much importance that we face difficulties, we can allow it to be an albatross around our necks, which is much more damaging than helpful.
Many people feel that pride is negative in all forms, but that seems far from true. What’s wrong with feeling proud for having worked hard and accomplished something worthwhile? Would we tell a child not to feel proud for doing well on a test? And if we do so, what effect would that have on the child in the future if he or she finds no reason to excel at what he or she does?
We’ve all gone through some challenging times, and we should be proud that we’ve made it through in one piece, for the most part. We’ve all accomplished some important and fascinating things and should be proud of our achievements. We’ve all avoided doing pretty terrible things and making some awful mistakes, and we should be proud that we showed restraint and good judgment.
The problem comes up when we allow pride to take over when we’re more proud of a certain something than that something merits when we put ourselves above other people because we feel we have more to be proud of than they do. If we do this, we are setting ourselves up for experiencing hell on earth, for there’s no way that we can maintain that perspective over long periods. We start to feel insecure, frustrated, and fearful of being exposed. Pride can be a good friend, but it can be an awful enemy if we give it too much power over us.
Questions to consider:
Why is it so tempting to feel inordinate pride in our actions?
What are some things that you’re most proud of?
How do you react to other people’s pride when they express it?
For further thought:
The beginning of pride is in heaven. The continuance of pride is on earth. The end of pride is in hell.-unattributed
