P R I D E

Pride. What it is... A baby is proud making a poop, a child is proud to be grownup enough to stop using dippers, having wet dreams, start loosing milk teeth, proud of their toys. The older kids turn their attention to their looks, tastes, then teens become proud of their rooms, homes, families and friends, schools, streets and neighbourhoods, then the whole village/town/city, eventually they grow to be proud of their cultures, religions, countries, animals, favorite nature trips, which leads to inevitable inclusion of being proud of the whole humankind with its unbelievable space adventures, Olympic heroes, superstars, and villains, the whole world and beyond, one gets proud of the universe ALOT, I AM ME MYSELF I *boom* as the little heads explode in overinflated egos flopping mess, since as of yet, in this fine example, none have done nada to accomplish anything to be proud of.

The less one has to show of their own accomplishment to be proud of, the more one is relying on being proud of the accomplishments of others or something they had nothing to do to achieve, such as their skin colour, sex, inheritance.

The more one is spiritually buncrupt the more one feels Pride for something they had nothing to do with aside the incidental connection by birth, and randomly or otherwise chosen preferences, thus channeling their hate and anger at the "other" not like their own kind, whatever that may be.

With the farts for brains, Pride can turn from innocent child's play to a deadly sin, notorious for being first and hard to resist. Pride leads to Envy, Greed, Lust, Gluttony, Anger, and last but not least Sloth aka the death of the soul, according to the Catholic cannon, which is opposite when the innocent pride is taken in the other direction of virtues.

The trick is subtle but significant. In the example above is shown that the child is proud of things it has nothing to do with, the pride then gets externalized and becomes plural in nature from me and I to Us and Them. Innocent pride at first however the ego of a child soon finds itself in the ocean of egos fighting for spotlight and top prize, and since the nature of the sins is plural, meaning one needs another one to commit a sin against, one can also split on the inside and attack oneself, or get possessed with same success, it can become a slippery slope for the innocent pride fall from grace, since it is unenlightened to the fact of being an empty ego, the fall can be rather rapid, hard, and life changing, and if lucky enough to register, causing epiphany of enlightening realizations. The reason it is effortless is because it is, it is easier to go down than up.

How to avoid such a disaster, well the opposite of pride is humility. I know we are talking about pride here. I am not pushing any religiosity, only logic by way of examples and rational deduction method.

take a breath.

Now, the nature of virtues is singular. One only needs oneself to be virtuous. It is work. Spiritual work mastering oneself. The more one is virtues, the more one is elevated in one's own consciousness standing firmly on the foundation of their good deeds. This takes time and effort. One is proud to be part of the wonderful world of God and do best one can to be the best one can be fulfilling the Divine Will, therefor the virtues one is humble for their own ego, sense of self, and is proud for others, as it should be, as kids are proud of their parents and vise versa, as the whole country is proud of its athletes. Pride in proper sense is reserved for others, not yourself, even if you accomplish something worth to be proud about, after all it is called the first deadly sin for a reason.

Live! Prosper! Be Well!

typed with Samsung S5

AB