PRIDE

Mitali’s Madness

“Through pride we are ever deceiving ourselves. But deep down below the surface of the average conscience a still, small voice says to us, something is out of tune.” –Carl Jung

Pride is a subjective term that has unfortunately tipped to the negative side of the fence. Pride essentially means self satisfaction. So, you can see why it could tip to the wrong side! When someone says they are proud of us, we beam with happiness but when it is said that we are ‘proud’, as a trait, that seems to hurt, doesn’t it?

More on the negatives later. Let’s start with the positive side of Pride! Pride can be experienced for a lot of things. Some of these include Pride for family, for a job or for one’s nation. When this pride is internalised then it takes the form of Hubris or narcissism. Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us.

One of the best examples of this is Pride for family.  There is no greater and purer pride felt than the pride that a child feels towards his parents or one that a parent feels when he sees his child accomplishing new highs in life. The family is the reflection of the person’s life. A family where the relations between the members are positive, a family that leads to the person’s self-perfection is a true subject of being proud. Children are not just family members but also the continuance of the parents. Our country being our motherland, the pride felt for one’s country is another strong emotion. Our parents give us our identity, but our country is the one that assures them of a sense of security, making them the individuals that we look up to. The last one I want to talk about is the love for one’s job. A job is more than just a means to earn your livelihood. People spend as much time of their day at work as they do at home. Loving your job is essential for a happy life. If you don’t take pride in your work, neither can you succeed nor can your company. A proud employee is a loyal one!

Coming to the negative aspect of pride, people who take pride in everything they do are often called vain rather than virtuous. Having true virtues also means having the capacity to not be overwhelmed by them.

“All Is Vanity” by C.Allan Gilbert evoking the inevitable decay of beauty and life towards death

A lot of proud people forget that. Most of the people who are termed as vain or proud honestly do have virtues they can boast about. They may have amazing looks or may be intelligent and consequently rich too, but they tend to look at these virtues so much that they seem to think of others as lesser than them for not possessing what they do. No human being is perfect but a lot of them are certainly under the illusion that they are! Everyone needs to remember that others will possess some talents that you don’t. Sure, you may look good or make a ton of money but there is someone out there who has better eyes than you or maybe makes a few bucks more. Never be too proud of materialistic things. They tend to be perishable by nature. If you want to take pride, take pride in your relations with others and cherish those because even if you lose your most proud possession, your loved ones will come stand by your side when no others will.

 

“A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.”― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity