Sins and virtues

As I have grown older I have begun to think a lot about sin, virtue, and that kind of stuff. I guess I have been wondering where I stand. Consider lust, for example. I certainly don't lust any longer although I must have as a younger man. After all, I did become a teenager and I did experience those raging hormones and all that went along with it. I guess if just growing up and being an adolescent is sinful I was guilty. I can't really think of teenage lust as a sin. How about gluttony. I guess I had moments of gluttony, like over baked ham or pickled pigs feet and a few other things. But remember, unlike pregnancy, you can have just a little gluttony and it is situational. I don't worry too much about it now. Then there is greed. I don't believe I was ever greedy. Indeed, had I been greedy I would certainly never have become an anthropologist. Sloth is somewhat like gluttony, you can be slothful at times but not at all at other times. Wrath is more complicated. Wrath encompasses hate and anger and such. I don't think I experienced wrath very much until the elections of 2000. Since then my wrath has grown by leaps and bounds. However, I notice that fully 70% of the American population is apparently experiencing wrath like crazy. You might say wrath is virtually epidemic at the moment. So, yeah, I am wrathful. So's everyone else. I don't have much envy even though I suppose I could. I was very envious once. When I was about six. My close friend received a pair of cowboy chaps for Christmas and I didn't. I was envious. But I found being envious so painful that I gave it up. It's never bothered me much since. Finally, there is pride. I don't think I suffer pride very much, even before a fall.

But before patting myself on the back for not being very sinful, I have to also consider the holy virtues. Man, do I flunk here. Chastity, no. Abstinence, no. Liberality, I don't know. Diligence, no. Patience, no. Kindness, well, I don't know. I don't think I have ever been knowingly unkind. But I have noticed that on the few occasions I tried to be kind it was most unrewarding. I don't believe kindness is its own reward. Humility, I have learned, is a result of experience. My experiences, especially golf and duplicate bridge, have certainly taught me humility.

So...I don't think I have been terribly sinful, but I certainly can't claim to be virtuous. So where does that leave me? Probably right along with most everyone else. It is very difficult to be sinful these days what with the Republicans having a virtual monopoly on sin. Is there even one of the seven deadly sins the Republicans don't excell in? Think about it: lust, yes, gluttony, yes, greed, big time, sloth, yes, wrath, plenty, pride, certainly. That leaves envy which is perhaps a bit more complicated. As they have almost all the money and power, and more possessions than they could ever need or want, who would they envy? Why, each other, of course. They envy the next guy with the bigger office, the most money, the most power, the closest to the President, the largest budget, and so on. I believe it is fair to say they are sinners in spades. They are sinners, sinners, the apex of sinnerdom, the cream of the sinners crop, the very mother of all sinners.

I am introducing a new feature: Little Known but Interesting Quotations, LKBIQ's, for short:

"He (Uncle Pio) regarded love as a sort of cruel malady through which the elect are required to pass in their late youth and from which they emerge pale and wrung, but ready for the business of living. There was (he believed) a great repertory of errors mercifully impossible to human beings who had recovered from this illness."
Thornton Wilder.