The Seven Deadly Sins, Day 2: Pride

Here is the really tricky, disconcerting thing about pride. I don't think I have that much of a problem with it, BUT DOESN'T THAT BY DEFINITION OF THE WORD MEAN THAT I DO?? The whole concept kind of makes me brain explode.

The stupidheads at Merriam-Webster (How I loathe them! How I long for the OED!) define pride as "inordinate self-esteem, conceit."

I can be prideful, of course. I am rather conceited about my intelligence and my writing skills. Judge for yourselves if my conceit about my writing ability is "inordinate" or not. But don't tell me either way, because it might hurt my feelings. Oh yeah! I am also prideful about thinking I am funny. Sometimes I am not funny at all, which is pretty disappointing.

I generally associate pride with vanity about one's appearance, clothing, etc. I used to be very vain about my perfect skin when I was in middle school. Then the last month of eighth grade I got the chicken pox. I haven't been vain about my skin since, mostly out of fear.

Sometimes I get vain about my appearance when I see pictures like this, and think to myself, "Look! I'm so pretty!"

See, I used to be pretty attractive before I gained all that weight on my mission.

Then I recall the existence of pictures like this, and I immediately humble myself.

Bring us a basin! We're going to be sick!!

These pictures were taken within a few months of each other, too. So it's not like my looks changed that much. I just have lots of ugly angles.

I don't know if I have anything else to say about pride. Except that I am too awkward and ridiculous to get too prideful about anything, and if I ever do get a little prideful, God sees fit to humiliate me (or allow me to humiliate myself) in various ways. So, thanks for keeping me in check, God.