What does Pride mean to us?
Satisfaction of pleasure taken in one's own or another's success, achievement, etc
It's that feeling you get when you're in a tournament and you land that extra long combo you'd been practising for the past six weeks. It's when you can't help but wear a goofy grin as your partner walks across the stage at graduation, when just two years ago they were convinced it was hopeless. It's that voice that tells you to keep talking shit after that jerk who cut you off in traffic ends up in the same parking lot as you. It's that need to crush anyone who dares tarnish your name, even if no one cares what they said.
Excessive self-esteem; conceit
Pride can push you to be greater or coax you into cruelty. Pride can validate your efforts, and it can blind you from your faults. Pride can be and often is a double-edged sword. Too little and you become weak or gullible. Too much and you become arrogant or delusional.
There are essentially two kinds of Pride: pride in what you do, and pride in who you are. The former is obvious; a meritocratic view of one's status and value. The other is more subjective, but we all know its forms. Nationality, heritage, identity, orientation, affiliation, allegiance, alumni; many people take pride in the circumstances of their birth or the content of their history.
A feeling of honour and self respect; a sense of personal worth
We're gonna talk about Honour in the next blog in this series. Short version, honour is the status that pride wants to display. Each of us is the legacy of those that came before us. So, it's natural to attach a sense of self to your lineage or position. Pretty much everybody wants those around them to, as they say, put some respect on their name.
However, even - and often especially - this sort of inherited pride can be dangerous, creating an intrinsic bias against all whose circumstances don't resemble your own. This is how you get “us Vs them” or “me against the world.” Pride can be what brings a community together. But, it can also leave a person alone.
For Nasha Leone, Pride takes on several meanings.
Nasha’s identity is both deeply rooted in her culture, heavily influenced by her pedigree, and bolstered by her accomplishments. A former champion and a literal princess, she’s held the weight of an entire kingdom on her shoulders more than once. She's one of the best at what she does and is very proud of herself for it. Ironically, it was her pride in her status and prestige that cost her the very circumstances she valued so much.
However, very little can keep a lioness from her pride.
Nasha relocated and rebuilt. Unable to accept existing as a failure, Nasha has scratched and clawed her way back into the spotlight. Now, she seems to help Mira find the same sense of pride that made the former a champion, while protecting her from the hubris that made her an exile.
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