You know what bothers me? The phrase "I'm proud to be [race/nationality]." There's this whole "proud to be an American" thing, and "proud to be a Canadian" - which means, as I understand it, "proud not to be an American." Canadians on the whole really don't like Americans, or at least, their perceived attitude of supremacy. Honestly, this lot is just as smug. And the other day on the radio during President Obama's inauguration (still waiting to be impressed) I heard some woman (an important woman?) pronounce that she was proud to be black.
Facepalm. I'm sick of it.
You're proud of your race/nationality? As in, from the moment you were born, just because of your colour or location, you already had something that made you better than everyone else? Simply by existing, you have a reason to be proud of yourself?
"I'm proud of my country" is generally better. It's saying "I'm proud that the people who originated in this area have done some good things." Yet at the same time, it can carry some supremacist undertones: "My country has done some pretty good things. What's your country done, huh?"
And then there's this whole "gay pride" thing. I've got nothing against homosexuals myself, mind. It'd be hard to, since I know a fair number of them myself. Yet... "I display a characteristic that causes others to stereotype and discriminate against me!" Seriously, throughout the whole of history the gays have been beaten down just for being who they are. And for what? So this will sound harsh, but can you tell me a single way the world would be worse off if homosexuality just didn't exist? (Granted, there's a couple, but nothing that compares to centuries upon centuries of hatred.) But, much like albinism and other ways in which people are born different, they are here. So give them equal rights, and everything. But it's nothing to be proud of.
You know what's something to be proud of? Walking across a continent. Writing a novel. Going where no man has gone before. Saving a life. Winning a competition. Making a contribution or doing something noteworthy. People don't know what's really important any more. If at the end of your life all you can say is "I'm proud of who I am" then you've failed. Acceptance isn't the same as achievement. Existence isn't the same as action. And just being what you are isn't something to be proud of.
I'm satisfied with my race, my nationality, and the country that I live in. Now I'm going to go out and do something to be proud of.
Speaking of doing things, I need to be studying... exams... sigh...
1 comment:
pride cometh before a fall, eh?
Seriously, throughout the whole of history the gays have been beaten down just for being who they are. And for what? So this will sound harsh, but can you tell me a single way the world would be worse off if homosexuality just didn't exist?
We would not have their song. We would be diminished.
We are told to love in a particular way, a way seemingly "designed" by nature. Those who are gay follow an invisible thread, though, one wholly interior to themselves. They have endured terrible hardships to be with those whom they love, and that love is wholly based on faith - the faith of their own experience.
What to be proud of? Not for "being" one way or another, no, because in that we have no Choice. It must be our Choices that we are proud of. How we choose to respond to the world around us, when we choose to be *true* to ourselves, that is worthy of pride. To say "i'm proud for being so-and-so" may be a shorthand for "i'm proud of how i've played the hand dealt to me. i'm proud i've been able just to survive with a shred of dignity, given the shitstorm i've gone through."
But yeah, sometimes people are "proud" of things they have no claim to being proud of.
I'll tell you this, Nine, I'll tell you this. I hope you have some pride for how you've navigated the long dark passage of your own odyssey. You have a long road in front of you, but you are still here, and you are pretty honest about what you have to face. Not to say you haven't made mistakes - oh honey, we all make mistakes, and I've made my share - but blunders are not contraindications of pride.
Those who are gay know something of this world that we don't, and through their stories we are more than we would be otherwise. Same goes for you and me. Our stories add value to the human experience. Perhaps in our suffering, we may reach depths of compassion unknown to those who lead mundane lives.
Existence isn't the same as action, true, but action and existence are not on opposite ends of a pole. They are not dualities. Our actions are part of our existence. Our actions are part of who we are.
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