the distortion of pride

[Stanley Anderson]

[Simmer Jr]

[Stanley Anderson]

[Sarah N.]

I don't see that either of them are better. They both serve different purposes. Like Karen said, the full one would be hard to drink from, but it has more in it. The fact that the glasses are "equal" doesn't make much sense with either. Equal in what? Weight, size, position, color? All physical attributes except position fall under identical. Does this pertain to Lewis at all?It reminded me of his discourse on inequality at the end of Perelandra where he says that "[God's] love and splendour may flow forth like a strong river that has need of a great watercourse and fills alike the deep pools and the little crannies, that are filled equally and remain unequal." Except it is turned on its head, and they are filled unequally and remain equal. It seems to me that the title "a distortion of pride" would imply that there is something wrong with either the way the glasses are viewed, or how they view themselves. Maybe the full glass prides itself on being so full, but in reality, it renders it less useful than the less full glass, because the drinker would get water on themself.

Sarah

[robsia]

[underpope]

[Karen]

[Simmer Jr]

Dearest Sarah,
You have just about nailed it on the head. Thanks for the C.S. Quote. Even though I was not thinking of it, it will fit real nicely in the theme of the answer. I must give credit to "Karen" as well, she understood and knew the answer all along.

Real quickly if I knew that descirbing the Glasses as "identical" and "equal" was going to cause so much confusion I wouldnt have done so. However my reason for describing them this way was so that the answer had nothing to do with the differences of the glasses themselves, and all to do with the amount of water.

Anyway here is the point. The Glasses, before holding any water are equal. Then out of no effort of their own they are filled with water (Glass B having less than Glass A). Now....The distortion of pride causes one to think that the two glasses are now unequal, or that Glass A is better than Glass B or vice versa. The truth is this though.... after the glasses are filled they are still the same equal glasses, and it was not of their effort that they became filled. The amount of water that the glasses hold give them no more worth either because all the worth lies in the water and not the glass (Karen touch on this ;) ). Lastly, if someone were to come and drink the water, regardless of which glass he picked it would be the water that refreshed them, and not the glass. Through the entire process the glasses remain equal.

Now somewhere along the line if the glasses had the ability to think, im sure that pride would have led Glass A or Glass B to assume that because of their different amounts of water that they were in some way better, when in fact the water is the only thing of seperate worth here. The glasses should if anything be pleased to be able to hold the water, and give it to others as well. This is "THE DISTORTION OF PRIDE", and unfortunately since we all have it, it causes us to think this way at times. We think that beacuse we have gifts that others dont have, or that we have more talent in one area than another, or (oddly enough) because we are a christian, that we are somehow worth more or we are better than others. The truth is that we are just glasses, and all the gifts, talents etc. that we are filled up with are Gods blessings. All the worth is Gods worth, and when it is given to others all the glory goes to God. We should just be pleased that God lives in us and blesses others through us.

God Bless

[robsia]

[Stanley Anderson]

[Stanley Anderson]

[Simmer Jr]

[Sarah N.]