[nandm]

Day 4

Dancing with the seven deadly sins---Pride

"It's a find thing to rise above pride, but you must have pride in order to do so." Georges Bernanos, The Diary of a Country Priest.

One way to begin our inventory is to use as a framework the seven deadly sins: pride, lust, greed, anger, gluttony, envy, and sloth.

Let's start with pride. It has many facets to consider. The dictionary defines pride as a sense of one's own dignity, or value, or self-respect, as well as pleasure or satisfaction taken in one's work, achievements, or possesions. Only at the end of the entry is pride defined as an excessively high opinion of oneself, that it, conceit.

If we're doing a true inventory, the positive aspects of pride need to take their place in our survey. Denying our positive attributes is an inverse form of snobbery: If we can't be the best, then we'll take pride in being the worst.

Grandiosity and perfectionism are symptoms of pride. When we strut, preen, condescend, and display a superior attitude, what we're really doing is wearing a mask to cover our deep-seated feelings of inadequacy. We're like the blowfish, which when threatened by its enemies, blows up to an enormous size to prevent them from attacking.

We take pride in our ability to outwit and outsmart people; in our superiority in the cars we drive, the houses we live in, the clothes we wear, and our artistic or business sense. In proper balance, these things are all positive attributes. But when we flaunt them to make others unhappy, they take on a negative aspect.

Today's Step: I take pride in my willingness to let go of false pride.

Step By Step. Muriel Zink