"It is easy, when you are young, to believe that what you desire is no less than what you deserve, to assume that if you want something badly enough, it is your God-given right to have it...I was a raw youth who mistook passion for insight and acted according to an obscure gap-ridden logic...And I lived to tell the tale."
Jon Krakauer, Into the Wild
If you haven't read Krakauer, I highly recommend both Into the Wild and Into Thin Air - both are tragic true tales of young men who essentially died of stupidity, some on Mount Everest, one in the wilds of Alaska, as a result of their misguided belief that they were more powerful than even nature itself. While Krakauer writes compellingly about the flaws of others, he is at his best when he writes about himself as he does in today's quote.
The hubris that he ascribes to his youth in not solely a youthful fancy. Many of us carry that reckless arrogance with us long after we would be described as youthful. In my own youth I seriously thought that being described as arrogant was a compliment.
While my youthful swagger has lost most of its swag, pride still rears up from time to time. Of course there are times when pride is appropriate, like when your child graduates from medical school. But more often than not, pride can be a filter that blocks out reason and compassion in equal measure.
As Solomon wrote in Proverbs 16:18:
"Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall."or as written in Matthew 5:5:
"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth"
Meek in this context means gentle or humble. Humility is one of the qualities that I admire most in others. As part of my Happiness Quest, I am trying to be vigilant, learning to recognize destructive hubris before it takes roost. It's a work in progress :-)
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