Hubris

Hubris can be a bit like potato chips for me, or maybe ice cream. It can be terribly appealing at certain times, but once I start it's difficult to stop, and before long I feel quite ill. Of course, going on about this blog being the best BLOG on the Internet would maybe be an example of this hubris, but at this point all that aggrandizement is more like a theme than an act of hubris.

As anyone who has ever met other people would know, hubris is traditionally the bottle cap over feelings of inadequacy, failure and doom. When one of my not very good co-workers declaims bitterly over one of my other not very good co-workers and over what should be done about it all, and they are full of fury, righteousness and confidence, it is easy to see the nature of hubris in all its pulsing clarity. When it is me being full of hubris, the mechanics of the whole thing can be hard to spot because that bottle cap requires lots and lots and lots of attention.

I am no stranger to the common ailment of walking around the library full to the brim with confidence over exactly how everything should be done and how everything could be improved and how everyone should  behave. On the best days I catch sight of what is actually going on, pry off the cap of my bottle of hubris, and pour myself a drink. I look out the window for awhile. I breathe. But as I careen frantically towards a desperately needed vacation something almost opposite seems to happen. Even hubris flies out the window. I keep my hand over the top of that bottle by sheer force of crankiness, rage, and exhaustion. The bottle agitates and explodes. I pick out the pieces of glass, get some rags, and clean up the mess. Then I go get another bottle.

No, I am not entirely sure exactly what this analogy is saying. Traditionally I would assume it must be saying something terribly clever. But with one day left til vacation I am pretty sure I am merely trying to keep all the words in their paragraphs.