Be Down to Earth, or be Brought Down (Day 255)

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Zeno always said that nothing was more unbecomming than putting on airs, especially with the young.”
Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers, 7.1.22

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​Putting on airs… yeah, I remember what my people used to say about those who acted as if they were somehow greater-than others. They used to say that this person: thinks their shit doesn’t stink. But, we’ve all had those moments, haven’t we, where for a while, we get used to the smell of our own… aromas? Getting ahead of ourselves, and more importantly, thinking we’re above those with whom we’re on this together-journey and who haven’t quite got it as “figured out” as we do… it’s a huge problem, and it’s one that we have all known at one point or another. 

Arrogance. Over-inflated self-opinions carry us over others… not ground us alongside them. 

A healthy sense of self and self-worth shouldn’t be filled with air, but instead, with sterner stuff: virtue practice, embracing interconnectedness, always living for and looking for the “greater good”. 

If the ego balloon that increases the space between people is never filled, then it’ll never need to be popped… and sometimes the popping of that bubble can be quite, abrupt, shall we say? My people, down in south Louisiana, used to say that someone was: in desperate need of an ass kickin’. 

It shouldn’t ever have to come to that, so remember: it’s more Virtuous to be hospitable than it is to be right. 

(See y’all tomorrow)