Pride, the Sin, Not the Gay Parade

We've already covered lust, greed and gluttony. This little ditty---the third in my four part deadly sins series---will bounce around some ideas about Pride, the sin. Hey, I have a low threshold for boredom and I'm an insomniac with time on her hands. Who else would think this stuff up in the middle of the night?

Decades ago, I remember thinking that a good time involved fitting five out of the seven sins into my sunset-to-dawn schedule. But it's been so long since I've thought about The Sins that I had to look them up to make sure I'm remembering them right. Pride, Greed, Envy, Anger, Lust and the two most misunderstood sins of all: Gluttony and Sloth. It's been even longer since I've thought about how most Western religions are divided up along the great divide between emphasizing the sin part of the equation over The Virtues in which those Seven Deadly Sins are committed against and emphasizing The Virtues, talking very little about the sins as if mentioning them might put thoughts into our heads. Man, that sentence was sixty words long! Some where in the world there's an English teacher turning over in her pink satin-lined coffin.

The Virtues: Humility, Generosity, Love, Kindness, Self-Control, Faith & Temperance and Zeal. Yes, Virginia, we can't have sin without them. The Virtues and The Sins are like Yin and Yang---not the panda bears in the zoo, but in Chinese philosophy and metaphysics. No, wait! I'm giving it the Western spin. Yin and Yang are primal oppose but complementary forces, not polar opposites. Yin/Yang. Tit-for-Tate. Let's get back to virtues before I start singing a little Michael Jackson.

'Virtue' is a pretty word, don't you think? It's fun to say but it's hard to walk the talk. But I try because I'm from the camp that believes in setting goals to live up to, rather than dispensing fears to run away from. Sing The Virtues, that's my religion, and the sins will take care of themselves. I am getting big-time side-tracked again. Tonight I'm meditating about pride. Repeat that twenty times in a row; I'm old and your chanting will help me to remember that.