A definition may help here. I do not intend to google a definition, I prefer to define my topic according to my view, so that I know what I am talking about. If I use somebody else’s definition, they are setting the agenda. This is my blog, I make the rules! How prideful…

So my definition is: Pride is that quality the expression of which puts the ego before the wants, wishes or understanding of others; based on the assumption that in some way one is superior to other people and therefore has the right to insist on pre-eminence and predominance. At any cost, and this is the main point. At anŷ cost.

This definition includes, of course, the person dangling over a cliff holding on to the branch of a tree refusing the helping hand, in the conviction that he can use his own strength to haul himself up even though the branch is breaking. Or the person who never admits he is wrong, and won’t accept that by refusing the helping hand he will plunge to his death. Or the captain of the Titanic, ignoring the lookout’s cries of “iceberg ahead” because he so desperately wants to reach New York in record time. Or the flasher convinced waving his willie in the tube train will make him irresistible to the girl sitting in the tube carriage. Or the man who wants to be president of the USA wearing a dead squirrel on his head and talking bollox and imagining himself a statesman.

Pride cometh before a fall, saith the bible. I do hope so.

Will the world actually miss the tree-hanger once he attempts levitation and yields to gravity? In the belief he will be admired for centuries, not be thought of as an utter asshole? Well, his friends who know that beneath the bluster and exterior Pride there lurks a wounded man, a person who was hurt badly and whose Pride is his response and attempt to survive. His partner who has seen him weep with terror at not being understood will miss him. Badly.

If we admit Pride is a problem, is there a cure?

Well, maybe this is. Or at least a first step. I don’t know if I am proud of it. I will know if it helps me.