Pride Goeth Before A Fall

I was born healthy and normal like any other child. At the age of nine months I could walk and according to my older siblings, I was very precocious and rambunctious. A little on the spoiled side too, being the youngest! Above all, I was stubborn! Oh boy, was I stubborn! Still am...but that's beside the point. To illustrate my stubbornness let me tell you a story that my oldest sister reminds me of now and again. It makes me laugh because I can see myself acting precisely as she described me. Only if she told you, she would make look like a devil of a child - and perhaps she would be right. On with my story.One fine day my mom was picking up my oldest sister from college and she had me with her in the car. My sister had a fish in a bowl and she was trying to teach what a fish is and how to say the word. She would point to the fish and say ‘fish’ and I was supposed to repeat it back to her. However, every time she said ‘fish’ I said ‘Gog’ (that was my pronunciation of ‘dog’). This went on for quite a few minutes and (according to her) I wasn’t going to back down from my claim that a fish is a dog. My sister thinks that I was just being strong willed in persisting that the fish was a dog and I tend to agree with her somewhat. I do have a tendency to get the last word in an argument or to try to get my way in situations. I don’t like to argue for argument’s sake but I do try to get my way in verbal discourse, if the opponent is of placid disposition. If the opponent is a type A like myself, forget it. I fold right away because I usually don’t have the energy to outtalk them or the intellect to outwit them fast enough.Speaking of my stubbornness, I am reminded of another story where my pride got the better of me. One day when I was about 6 years old my brother was teasing me unmercifully and provoked me to great anger. Brothers have a unique gift for saying just the very thing that can irk their little sisters. The little sister can be perfectly peaceful at one moment and then suddenly (when provoked) she can turn a devil pronouncing foul language and refusing to repent for her offenses. It’s amazing – brothers can just push that one button and BOOM!, the bomb inside the female psyche goes off! Lol! This particular brother pushed my button and I insulted him by saying a bad word. Well, my mother heard me say it and she made me apologize to my brother. We were not allowed to use any bad language and just because I am handicapped, does not exempt from me this rule. The moral point behind this issue, I think, is probably a matter of purity and it is important to be pure in word, thought and deed. Anyways, I had to apologize to my brother and I wouldn’t for quite a while. My attitude was: Apologize? Me apologize to him? For what? He provoked me into saying the bad word, so why should I have to apologize?” (The old argument: the devil made me do it). The story goes that my mom held me on her lap until I agreed to say my sorry to my brother. I think I was on her lap for a good hour or two before my pride broke and I apologized.