September 8, 2008

Pride

Your gender, nationality, family name, highschool, your god? How did these things become important to you? These are things that you don't choose.

Children, they're a choice. Your work ethic, how you treat the world; these are things to take pride in. You can control these; they're a reflection of you.

I take a little bit of pride in being Arabic, but not much. I was never taught to speak Arabic, my family went to the Unitarian church, I don't make very good hummus.

The pride I take now comes in my work. The place I live is very special and I take pride in it because I choose to live here and I want to keep it an amazing place. I'm very proud of my wife, she is one of the best choices I've ever made.

There's been some political conventions recently and everyone loves to shout about their pride for this country. Like it's better than others. Like they had a choice. I don't understand the pride some people have in the things they have no control over.

What are you most proud of?


5 comments:

Jan Bosman said...

What I would say in one sentence is that, for Americans, the real work is becoming native to North America. The real work is becoming native in your heart, coming to understand we really live here, that this is really the continent we're on and that our loyalties are here, to these mountains and rivers, to these plant zones, to these creatures. The real work involves developing a loyalty that goes back before the formation of any nation state, back billions of years and thousands of years into the future. The real work is accepting citizenship in the continent itself.

- Gary Snyder

Greg said...

I'm proud to choose Coke over Pepsi.

RIP Carlin:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cwOqKfEYTg

kevin said...

I dunno. We all have to find meaning somewhere, if only for a reason to get up in the morning. If we know what we want, we can build our own identities to fit our sense of taste. But how do we decide what we want, what we like? Maybe it's just a mystery.

I'm proud of myself for doing the right thing, even when it sucked.

What Jan said is pretty good too.

Whiskeymarie said...

I'm most proud that I made a conscious decision years ago to lead a totally honest life- owning my mistakes and misdeeds, owning my successes, being true to myself, my friends, and my family- and I have done so ever since. No lies, no passing the buck, no hiding- just me as I am.
It just makes things so much easier and real.
And I'm also proud of my spouse. He makes me a better person.

Anonymous said...

I'm proud of my children - all 3 of them!