For the last 18 years I have been humiliated daily (lots of places, but I am not saying it lightly. We're talking career failure, sneered at, shunned, discarded by extended family, bring out the violins....). It has made me a nastier, more miserable person, more bitter, resentful and wrathful. I can relate to the W.B.Yeats quote about "too much sacrifice can make a stone of the heart". I used to be kinder and gentler when life and other people gratified my ego occasionally and when I felt more fulfilled, less mired. I am not and have never been humble tho I have occasionally managed to do good anonymously (it really IS more satisfying). I hate cringing types who won't take a compliment or who say "God does it thru me". Gag me with a maggot! Have some self respect... The Bible is a great consolation. Lots of others drinking the dregs of humiliation and despair in its pages. Alone, despised, failures, doing shitty jobs while the wicked prosper...
On balance, one's dog redeems a humiliating life. Hence my nom de plume. Dogs teach us about God's unconditional love. And help us endure the loneliness of this world until we see Him face to face.
I don't think it's an "or" situation. Nor is it always a choice. It's not only possible, but entirely likely that one can be humble and humiliated simultaneously. Surely I'm not the only one who has experienced that. While how we treat others is controlled by us, we have little or no control over the way others treat us. Especially relatives. We can be humiliated by others even when those others did not mean to do it to us.
Some of my most cringe-inducing memories are when I humiliated someone without meaning to. And those are just the times when I was able to recognize that I did it.
We've become accustomed to using the word "humiliated" as a substitute for "put to shame," or to mean merely "humiliated."
However, I suspect that AVI means to use the word in its more traditional sense of being "abased," or "broken" (as in - broken of pride). The idea being that - as we walk the road of life, we must choose to be humble, or else God will arrange our affairs such that we will be COMPELLED to be humble.
For the last 18 years I have been humiliated daily (lots of places, but I am not saying it lightly. We're talking career failure, sneered at, shunned, discarded by extended family, bring out the violins....). It has made me a nastier, more miserable person, more bitter, resentful and wrathful. I can relate to the W.B.Yeats quote about "too much sacrifice can make a stone of the heart". I used to be kinder and gentler when life and other people gratified my ego occasionally and when I felt more fulfilled, less mired. I am not and have never been humble tho I have occasionally managed to do good anonymously (it really IS more satisfying). I hate cringing types who won't take a compliment or who say "God does it thru me". Gag me with a maggot! Have some self respect...
ReplyDeleteThe Bible is a great consolation. Lots of others drinking the dregs of humiliation and despair in its pages. Alone, despised, failures, doing shitty jobs while the wicked prosper...
On balance, one's dog redeems a humiliating life. Hence my nom de plume. Dogs teach us about God's unconditional love. And help us endure the loneliness of this world until we see Him face to face.
Maybe I'm having an unusually humiliating day....
I am humble, for I have so much to be humble about. Occasionally I approach reasonably OK.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it's an "or" situation. Nor is it always a choice. It's not only possible, but entirely likely that one can be humble and humiliated simultaneously. Surely I'm not the only one who has experienced that. While how we treat others is controlled by us, we have little or no control over the way others treat us. Especially relatives. We can be humiliated by others even when those others did not mean to do it to us.
ReplyDeleteSome of my most cringe-inducing memories are when I humiliated someone without meaning to. And those are just the times when I was able to recognize that I did it.
We've become accustomed to using the word "humiliated" as a substitute for "put to shame," or to mean merely "humiliated."
ReplyDeleteHowever, I suspect that AVI means to use the word in its more traditional sense of being "abased," or "broken" (as in - broken of pride). The idea being that - as we walk the road of life, we must choose to be humble, or else God will arrange our affairs such that we will be COMPELLED to be humble.