Pride & Prejudice

Brace yourselves, possums... Laura's been THINKING again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k04KzgYRKrE

The latest subject that's been buzzing around the windmills of my mind is the subject of PRIDE. Of course my first instinct was to zip over to my go-to urban gristmill, Wikipedia, to get a feel for what the fevered masses have to say on the subject. And as I suspected, the camps are pretty evenly divided on the merits of pride: if it is good (or destructive), has a use (or is pointless), and what the pros and cons might be of being found to be "proud"-- but "only in the best sense" (thank you, Jane Austen).

Per Wiki:

Pride is a lofty view of one's self or one's own. Pride often manifests itself as a high opinion of one's nation (national pride), ethnicity (ethnic pride), or appearance and abilities (vanity). Pride is considered a negative attribute by most major world religions, but some philosophies consider it positive. The opposite of pride is humility.

The long and the short of this is, where does Laura fall on the pride sliding scale? Overall, I was raised to believe that pride, in moderation, was a good thing indeed-- you should be proud of your accomplishments & good works, but should not strive to attain them (success / accomplishments) from self-serving motivations. One of my favorite quotes of all-time is from Miss Manners: "It is far more impressive when others discover your good qualities without your help." Its one thing to be proud of what you do / have done-- but it is tantamount to a crime to toot your own horn in self aggrandizement (the search for "greatness or power"). Have I followed that advice to a T? Hell to the N-O. But it wasn't until I attended a public meeting this evening where a community organizer asked our neighborhood association membership, "Who here wants to be powerful?" that I brought my recent ruminations to a head. Every person who answered the question gave disclaimers-- We want to be powerful, but with limits / purpose. Me? I responded, "I AM powerful already." I didn't say that from an over weaning need to brag-- but if you had been there, you would have understood how condescending the woman's tone was, and why I felt the need to reply thusly. But it did trigger thoughts about the inner conflict I've been having of late-- trying to determine if I use pride as a shield instead of a crown.

The genesis of my recent mental pride parade was the realization that the quest for / the rejection OF, and the feverish need to preserve personal pride is the poison (say that 10 times fast) that keeps us from becoming more self-actualized humans. "What will they say if I _________?" "What will happen if I DON'T _________?" Humans spend far too much energy holding onto it, quashing it (or fostering it) and worrying about it-- quality of life becomes secondary in the effort.

And of course, I also had to hold the idea of pride (and its prioritization) against my favorite litmus tests-- are we talking nature vs nurture, male vs female, what?

Don't worry-- I'm not going to give you a blow-by-blow fallout of what got things rolling... This IS one of my personal battles, and the verdict is still out s to whether I've won the war, or simply the latest battle. But if this post does nothing more than get ya thinking right along with me, than I can call myself a success. And I'm more than OK with that ~