Pride and Despair

I was doodling about Elder Bednar’s talk in a free moment.  The doodles showed me something about  the relationship pride has to despair.

To recap, Elder Bednar’s talk suggested to me that one aspect of pride is a fixation on present circumstances whereas humility recognizes that the future is uncertain.  More specifically, pride refuses to believe that the present can change or refuses to do what is necessary to change it.

The difference between pride and despair is only one of degree.

These are two simple examples of pride and despair.  The proud man or woman is doing well and is certain it will always be that way because they deserve it.  The despairing is doing poorly and refuses to  believe that can ever change.

Here are some more complicated examples.

Another form of despair is self and present focused, but not on where the person are but on where they seem to be headed.  This person might appear to be doing quite well but they are aware that things are currently getting worse and they refuse to believe that the decline will ever change.

There is another form of pride that is the same, for someone who sees things looking up and is convinced they are just going to always keep on getting better and better because of how great they are.

Finally, you have people who are present focused on their inner feeling.  They may be doing well and things getting better, but they have an inner sense of unworthiness that they hold on to and insist will come to fruition in the future.  Or they are doing poorly and getting worse but  insist that their inner greatness will surely result in fortune being showered on them in the future.

None of these truly acknowledge time.  They all take something internal or external about the present self and insist on it continuing forever.

Those who are not proud know that God can change them and that left to their own devices they cannot continue on successfully.  Paradoxically, to truly acknowledge the scope of one’s own agency is humbling.

Both the high and the lowly can be humble.

Now look at those two most recent doodles again.  Do you notice that they are exactly the same diagram?  Only the scale is different.  If you realize how high the success axis goes, your current position zooms down to the bottom.

Is is the same with the first two doodles also.  The only difference between pride and despair is realizing how high the success axis goes.