How far will pride get you?
Pride might get you to a spot where you’ll say, “I’m better than you.” Or, it may get you to a place that tells you, “I’m the most important.” Or, the most common of all, it will do its darndest to ensure that, “I’m right and you’re wrong”.
In a nutshell, pride isn’t going to get you very far.
Deceptive in and of itself, pride has more disguises than we will ever recognize. We’re not happy with the way our spouse leaves dirty dishes on the table; pride. We wonder why the “lazy” person in front of us can’t walk down the escalator; pride. We judge the homeless person’s inevitable question of “spare charge?” when all he wanted to ask was if he could borrow our tie. Pride. It’s all pride. And, it’s the barrier to being Love.
When pride convinces us that we’re smarter, prettier, superior and, most of all, “right”, we sever our true connection to the souls around us. We create a very physical separation from something that we’re all a part of. When faced with conflict (this doesn’t just have to be a fight or an argument), it’s our innate human instinct that tells us we need to win. What this really is, is pride getting the better of us. And, when pride wins, Love loses.
Really, when you think about it, how constructive is an emotion like pride? Okay, so you were right. You were following the rules of the road, someone else wasn’t and an accident resulted. You immediately get into an argument with the other motorist about what happened and let’s say you “win”. Great! Is your car still damaged? Yes. Do you still have to go the inconvenience of repairing it? Yes. Does the situation suck regardless? Yes. But, you won! You’re the better person (insert whichever sarcastic tone suits you best). By “winning”, the only thing you’ve created is animosity, superiority and a separation from your fellow man; and, most importantly, your true self. You have no idea if that person just lost their job, was returning from a funeral, rushing to the hospital because their wife was about to give birth to their first born or just a shitty driver. Pride doesn’t care to understand; it just wants to be at the top.
Why pride is the most challenging hurdle to overcome on your path to Love is because it doesn’t just come in the form of an arrogant, puffed out chest at the yacht club. It shows itself in all those little daily instances that we barely notice because our default need is to have things our way or to be right.
Pride thrives on “I” and “mine”. It needs an identity; it needs a self-image to attach itself to. Love only requires your willingness. Love doesn’t see faces, or ethnicities, or status, age, education, occupation, the list goes on. The biggest one; Love doesn’t see hate. It just sees the opportunity for Love and wants to fulfil its meaning of helping others see those opportunities. Love will offer you the ability to understand that anything and everything we experience that isn’t Love, is because we need help. It’s because, somewhere inside, we’re hurting. Hurt is our unidentified search for Love projecting itself in a negative way. Abandoning pride is the way to see this in others and in ourselves. It’s the way to re-establish that we’re all connected and here to help each other. Let Love be your window.
be Love.
No one is better than the other as we are all different individual with different background and life experience. The one who starts to think he or she is better than others have already “lost the battle”. I think positive pride is good such as someone works in a great team, he or she is pride that he or she belongs to that supporting team (well here I guess is more proud rather than pride:)). I do sympathy people who causes a car accident because of bad thing has just happened to him or her; but they shouldn’t use that as an excuse because some accidents are not just destroying two cars, and people may get serious injury. So I guess sometimes the driver who thinks he or she is right and is the winner may not just want to show that they are right, but also with a good intend that no matter what safe driving is important as what if the car was hit with a baby inside (even with the car-seat, can still be dangerous). Just my thought. Be positive and be love.
I think that it’s integral to remind ourselves that we are all one. Although, the person wronging us may not have that view, it is in our power and our choice to make the decision for Love. What has happened, has happened. We cannot change it. But, a reaction of Love can quickly become something proactive for what is to follow.
All your thoughts are always welcome here. Please keep ’em coming. 🙂