In my reading of Fools Rush In, I was struck by the emphasis on pride - in particular where the author was discussing how we draw attention to ourselves in our everyday lives and are, as he put it, “at war with ourselves.”
...We mediocrities struggle at a different level, hoping that our own petty contributions, irrelevant and ephemeral as they are, will be puffed up and acknowledged by others... I am a man divided against myself; I want to be the center of attention because I am a fallen human being; I want others to know that I am the special one; and as long as the new me and the old me are bound together in a single, somatic unity, I will forever be at war with myself. What I can do, however, is have the decency to be ashamed of my drive to self-promotion and my craving for attention and for flattery and not indulge it ... I am not humble, so I should not pretend to be so but rather confess it in private, seeking forgiveness and sanctification (pg 6).
While the author’s approach is indeed humorous,he does have a valid point: that at one point or another in life we all desire affirmation because we are sinful human beings and we seek that verification through drawing attention to the great and wonderful things about ourselves. It causes one to wonder, what things might I be doing in my own life, rooted in pride, to draw undue attention to myself? I think that the answer, as outlined this first chapter of the book, may surprise us.
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