By Richard Ray:
Pride is just one of a series of characteristics or attributes that is dually admirable in attaining and complicit in our fallibility as humans.
In moderation pride is an admirable quality to have. Perhaps the use of the word moderation could be best used to describe any human characteristic, but pride seems particularly susceptible to invocation of the word.
A definition of pride: a feeling or deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one’s own achievements, the achievements of those with whom one is closely associated, or from qualities or possessions that are widely admired.
That is as a noun, when defined as a verb, one can see the slippery slope that pride can pose: be especially proud of a particular quality or skill.
We should all want to achieve or feel pride related to our appearance, our achievements, our work ethic, our drive and our determination. Pride can serve as a basis for how far we have come as well as a motivating tool in not wanting to fail. People should be prideful of who they are, no matter how unpopular or different that may make them from others. Proud of their sexual orientation… proud of their height (lack of it or considered abnormally tall)… proud of their skin complexion, race and ethnicity.
The list is too long for what people should be prideful of. Pride, for the most part is a good and positive thing. However, it is when pride is abused, misused and overused that problems arise. Your pride of your sexuality, race, ethnicity, religion, social status, looks…should not be used as a weapon to either denigrate others or restrict you from growing and learning.
Far too often people have let pride prohibit them from saying their sorry, impacting relationships. Pride has prohibited people who need money from taking jobs that fell beneath their perceived status. Pride has prohibited people from asking for help or assistance. Pride is good, but not when it stops you from progressing or even surviving. Like most of life’s truisms there is a fine line from what makes a characteristic admirable versus deplorable. For pride the line is really quite clear: if it is preventing you from doing anything positive in your life or hurting others, it has crossed into the negative realm and needs to be avoided or amended.
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#pride, #selfawareness, #selfconfidence, #moderation, #growth
