“I learn that pride often makes recovery difficult” (ODAT, 21 November)
What is pride? The insistence that I am right, the only authority I recognise, the navigator of the ship, the Captain of the Knowing of Things, the purpose and object of my own life, and the asset of supreme value.
This produces a circularity: I am for myself, and that is the end of it; no wisdom seeps in; no poison leaks out: the ever-decreasing circles of stagnation.
To recover I need to both let out and let in.
To this end, I have to admit that I am wrong, that God is the authority, that I am a terrible navigator, that my Knowing of Things is limited, that I am but a cabin-boy on the ship of the Knowing of Things, that I am neither the purpose nor the object of my life, and that, whilst I am indeed of value, I’m certainly not the only thing of value.
One this democratisation process is complete, I’m guided not by the good of me but by the good of all: I’m neither the All nor excluded from the All.