Friday, June 11, 2004
(7:34 AM) | Adam Kotsko:
Friday Afternoon Confessional
As many of my readers remember, last week I did not sin at all. I was even beginning to think that I had been entirely sanctified or entered the state of Christian perfection. Such was not the case. This week has been a banner week for sin, perhaps my most sinful week since this series began. I will organize my posts under the headings of the Seven Deadly Sins, those confusingly-named inclinations that, while not sins in themselves, can predispose one to actual sins.
Pride made several noteworthy appearances this week, primarily in the guise of despair. In addition, I foolishly thought that people would care about an inventory of non-blogic writings. There are other things that happened outside the blog world that fit under this heading better, but I don't really want to share them in this forum. (Perhaps this can help answer à Gauche's question as to why our lists of sins are so work-centric -- that kind of stuff is orders of magnitude easier to talk about, especially in a public setting.)
Sloth was Pride's only real competitor this week. My Tuesday off was characterized by sleeping in late, then wasting time on the Internet rather than fully "buckling down" and expanding my Empire paper. Witnessing myself in a condition of Sloth injures my Pride, making me depressed, and thus contributing to "the sophistry of despair." Hell will have an Internet connection.
Wrath was a surprisingly minor factor this week, at least until I got to work and found the words "Shut the fuck up you fucking bitch, you fucking bitch..." running through my mind over and over whenever a particular co-worker opened her mouth. I've reached a similar point with her that I've reached with George W. Bush and his cohorts -- even if they said something really, really true, I'd still think that it was the stupidest thing I'd ever heard.
Lust was not a major problem. m2 of The H is O and several of his friends came over last night, but I was able to keep the lid on my libido. I did flirt rather tackily with a married woman, in front of her husband, but everyone involved seemed to take it in stride. (One wonders why our medieval brethren didn't include "drunkenness" on the list -- it'd be a great addition, and you could even maintain the list at seven items if you condensed Greed and Envy into one Deadly Sin.)
Greed was not a particular problem. Not being in school and thus being able to work more have placed me in a situation where money is not a real problem for the time being. I count "money worries" under the heading of Greed, and that is probably a good illustration of how the Seven Deadly Sins are not sins, since it's not usually entirely a person's own fault if they have money problems, but can lead to destructive behaviors, such as being an arsehole to one's spouse, etc. (I am a moral theologian.)
Gluttony is never a problem for me -- I eat, and wipe my mouth, and say, "I have done no wrong."
Envy struck me at every turn, usually in intellectual matters ("X has read a book I haven't! I'm falling behind!") or in situations that would be better handled under the heading of Lust. Luckily, I was able to avoid gossip, backbiting, slander, character assassination, or murder, which are among the most probable outgrowths of envy.
My AP Lit teacher in high school had a wonderful poster of various hypothetical advertisements for the Seven Deadly Sins. Highlights included "Pride: It's Just Not a Sin Anymore," or the one for Envy, which was written in crayon on a crumpled sheet of notebook paper and just bitched about how everyone else got a good sin. Mr. Ricketts, if you're reading, God bless you.
As always, absolution is available to all who make a sincere act of contrition in the comments. (HaloScan did not realize how apt their name was before I developed this innovative program to meet people's religious needs online.)
