Pride - More Dangerous than a Bunch of Lions


FOR YOUR PLEASURE
First, let me introduce a new little game within my posts for your amusement. (probably mostly for mine). It is called, “Find the Song Lyrics”. Here is how it works: Somewhere in my post, there will be an obvious lyric from some relatively well-known song. See if you can find the lyric and name the song and the artist in the “comments” section. I will give the answer at the bottom of the next post. I will try to do this most days. I will let you know when I do or do not have one.
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I think most of the lessons I learn in life are tested with my morning workouts. Sure there are the obvious tests like discipline, endurance, etc. However there is a lot more than that.

Often on my daily runs, I run across other people trying to get some exercise in. There is one guy that seems to have an engine that won’t quit. He passes me going the other direction and then I will see him again down another road in the distance a short time later. He runs with a pretty good pace and he seems to go on and on like the Energizer Bunny.

SIDENOTE: Now that I am thinking about that guy, I realize that he bugs me at many levels. The first time I passed him, we both kind of “Good Morning’d” each other. Then I would greet him and he would respond with a little nod. That’s fine. Lately when I greet him, he completely blows me off. What is with people like that? And why does my life repeatedly mimic various Seinfeld episodes? Now I just ignore him, too. I FORGOT to say “hello” to my neighbor. Sometimes I question my own behavior.

There is another person – a lady that walks with her daughter. She is always friendly – sometimes too friendly as she makes me check my watch too often – if you know what I mean. Her (adult) daughter is pretty quiet, though, and I wonder if she would even greet me if she was out without her mother.

So here is the thing. I would come across these people often in my walking phase of my workout. I do an escalation type thing where I walk, then jog, then briskly jog, then run, and start the cycle over again after the running. At the end, I walk the “cool-down” part. Sometimes when I am “caught” walking by these folks, I am really spent. I look like someone who can’t walk without gasping for air before he inevitably passes out. Yesterday, as I finished the most strenuous part of my run, I ran into the guy across the street while I was walking toward the house. He, with genuine concern, asked me if I was holding up all right. I just responded with a brief “sometimes.”

The point is that every time I get caught walking, I want to go into a whole discourse about how my workout works and why I am walking and not jogging or why I appeared to be all tuckered out from my walk. Why do I want to do this? PRIDE. It is too hard to remember sometimes that IT is not about me.

Pride is a killer. It is the very thing that reminds us that we are too concerned about ourselves and the way others see us. We always are starving for someone else's approval. When we are too self-absorbed, we rob ourselves from the joy of being and giving.

I shouldn’t care if my neighbors judge me in this way. Maybe, seeing me exhausted after a “walk” makes them feel better about the state of their own health. I fight to restrain myself. I am usually successful, but I don’t like the struggle. I don’t like that about myself.

In the third paragraph above, I bolded the phrase “going the other direction” after I wrote it. It was pride that made me put it there. I wouldn’t want anyone to think that someone ran faster and passed me going in the same direction, would I? Pride.

ENDNOTE: If the song lyric game flops, pride will again become an issue with me. ;)





3 comments:

Tawnya said...

Pride gets us all...That is a fact. Sometimes we can do well with it and sometimes not.... Tawnya

Bon & Mal Mott said...

Yes, even at our advanced stage of life, pride can rear its ugly head, though when body parts begin to fail pride may be felt simply by rising from a prone to an erect position.

Bonnie and Walt

Judith HeartSong said...

good post... good post. A chuckle and a thought for the day:)

judi