SEVEN DEADLY SINS

Welcome to the real world and lets talk about it. Now, who has ever stopped for a second and asked himself/herself simple questions like these "What is my purpose on earth? Why do I feel great when things go my way? Why do I feel the need to acquire more than I need? What is the benefit of shopping every weekend? What do I get by making someone unhappy? What do I achieve by involving myself in someone's life? Who gives me a right to talk about someone behind his/her back? Who gives me a right to investigate someone's life without a warrant or permission to do so? What do I get by invading into the privacy of an individual who is neither related to me nor has anything to do with me? Why do I tell a lie even though I don't want to be told a lie? What makes me think I am more important than another person?" The questions can go on and on and on and on ........ But personally I have never been able to answer these kind of questions. But I have attempted to understand what makes human beings susceptible to doing exactly these things I have asked above, not because I am a philosopher or mother Teresa, but because I have been a victim of such behaviour from other human beings.

To be fair, I started off by acknowledging that if it is not easy to understand myself, hence, what a frigging chance have I got to understand others? I don't understand myself purely because of the complexity of my thoughts, my emotions, my feelings, my determination and my resillience to personal trauma just to name a few qualities. One would ask why and what is so difficult about humans and humanity that makes it so difficult for us to understand ourselves. As I am writing this, an old painful memory is activated, I feel sad, I feel angry, I feel disillusioned by other humans, I need comfort; so I go downstairs and get myself a glass of wine and then I will listen to my music and cry myself to sleep. In exactly the same scenario, what would someone else do? I suppose someone will pick a telephone and ask for advice from relatives and friends, cry down the telephone and ask her sister or brother to come over for company, someone else might even talk to a good Samaritan who will listen and sympathise, whilst another person will write an email to a friend; whereas those at witsend will be at their doctors in the morning for anti depressant .......... That is not me as I prefer to be alone at times like this, hide myself and my pain away from the rest of the world and wake up in the morning pretending that all is well. Hence the first person I meet who asks me about me always gets the same answer; 'I am perfect!' But deep down I want to scream and tell the world that 'I am angry, I did not sleep at all, someone has upset me etc etc etc.' But I cannot say these words, because I don't want to hurt the person who has upset me. So I carry this burden around my neck everyday.

As a nurse I am priviledged to have a little bit of a scientific backkground but I have read extensively on human physiology and related subjects. Science has attempted, psychologists are at it, religion talks hieroglyphics to me, spiritual gurus have joined the bandwagon. What is human nature and what makes us so different and so difficult to understand? For now, I will leave you with the following, they are called the seven deadly sins and they apply to humans.

Pride is excessive belief in one's own abilities, that interferes with the individual's recognition of the grace of God. It has been called the sin from which all others arise. Pride is also known as Vanity.
Envy is the desire for others' traits, status, abilities, or situation.
Gluttony is an inordinate desire to consume more than that which one requires.
Lust is an inordinate craving for the pleasures of the body.
Anger is manifested in the individual who spurns love and opts instead for fury. It is also known as Wrath.
Greed is the desire for material wealth or gain, ignoring the realm of the spiritual. It is also called Avarice or Covetousness.
Sloth is the avoidance of physical or spiritual work.
Click on the sin for a more in-depth review.