ExposedNYC

This is one of those times that I think the rules are officially outdated. Let’s examine what it means to have pride:

“Pride refers to a strong sense of self-respect, a refusal to be humiliated as well as joy in the accomplishments of oneself or a person, group, or object that one identifies with.” – Wikipedia

“a becoming or dignified sense of what is due to oneself or one’s position or character; self-respect; self-esteem.” – Dictionary.com

“a reasonable or justifiable self-respect” – Miriam-Webster’s Dictionary

These sound like the lessons my parents tried to instill in me growing up. In both the dating and professional world, we are taught to portray confidence, self-esteem, and pride in our accomplishments.

On the other hand:

“Humility is a quality or characteristic ascribed to a person who is considered to be humble. A humble person is generally thought to be unpretentious and modest: someone who does not think that he or she is better or more important than others.” - Wikipedia

“a virtue, is the quality of being humble or having a lowly opinion of oneself [emphasis added], meekness, lowliness, humbleness, the opposite of pride or haughtiness.” – Miriams-well.org

“Synonyms- lowliness, meekness, submissiveness.” – Dictionary.com

To paraphrase (and admittedly take some liberties), our virtues hold in high regard one who holds them self in low regard. I’m pretty sure we’ve come to rename this as depression.

While I may agree with some of the other comparisons as guidelines, I really think that our ideal here is a happy medium, leaning more toward the sinning side. Sure there are those who go overboard into false pride (AKA cocky), but any value can be misconstrued. Pride in it’s purest form is a positive trait, and one of the number one things I’m attracted to in a man…not that I’m holding that up as a measure of decent human being with my track record!

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