Humility: "freedom from pride or arrogance : the quality or state of being humble."
Sometimes you choose to be humble, and sometimes you are chosen. Have you ever experienced earth-shattering, ego-deflating, complete and utter humiliation?
It's not fun.
I have experienced it a few times in my life. I have suffered a few total beat-downs: mental, physical, psychological, spiritual.
Usually, or no, always, I bring it upon myself. Usually, or no, always, it happens when I am shooting from the hip, acting decisively, without much forethought.
Jump in elbows flying, blood spattering, damn the torpedoes. And well, that is how you end up damning yourself to hell or a least to purgatory. That is if you believe in hell and/or purgatory.
If I look back on my life, I realize that these humiliations were pivot points. I would not be a writer, a guitar player, a playwright, I would not be me, without these humiliating, mortifying trials and tribulations.
I also wouldn't have these scars, uncertainties, foibles, hesitancies, doubts, insecurities either. Life = the sum of all the wins, losses, false starts, dead ends, car crashes, slip-ups, laughter, loves, hates, fuckups.
If you make it thru, it's like that old Timex watch commercial: takes a licking, keeps on ticking...
