Hubris

Joel and Victoria on when I came home...Joel is the smiling reverend...and he talks well...and was talking about King David....how when he was a kid David used the talents God gave him...the sling being one...practicing while being a shepard...and of course this famously comes into play when King Saul battles the Philistines and Goliath....but before Saul sent David into battle he must have had doubts...and everyone else as well...so...in the story there is this circumstance of someone young and inexperienced confounding those who think they know everything...hubris I think that's called...thinking you know everything...

And...I was thinking on this today from two films that were on before I went to work...

PBS is doing a Bob Dylan special...when Dylan went electric...

The first film was The Hunt for Red October...in the first scene the Sonar Man is explaining to the Captain how he thinks he's heard a Russian Sub..a sound which all the equipment reports is an earthquake....the Sonar Man, like David, has talent...a kinda knack for hearing things in the ocean, and after he explains it best he can, the path the Russian Sub is taking...the Captain says, 'Relax, I'm with you on this.'...a reassurance the Sonar Man was grateful for as he had gone out on a limb...

Now, the second scene was right after this, and in it Ryan is explaining that he thinks the Russian sub is maybe defecting to two Navy Officers...who are incredulous...but one "is with him" on this too...and after Ryan leaves, dresses down the other Officer, who voiced his disdain for Ryan's far fetched notions, by explaining Ryan's talents and earlier efforts....

And Now, the third....it's in a Harry Potter move...and Harry is squared off in a kinda magic wand fast draw contest...everyone is in the Grand Hall with a kinda long padded mat to do the contest on...Harry gets walloped...then he wallops the kid from Snakes...but then the Snake kid conjures up a cobra, which crosses the rules...and Harry displays a talent for talking to snakes...which dumb fonds the Professors....Harry is prodigy...

And that is what I was thinking about...Some gifted, young, prodigy comes along and goes against established notions successfully...Bob Dylan!

The second officer in the Red October scene is running for President...though I've read in a desultory fashion...which is just an aside...

But Goliath was full of hubris and no idea a kid with a sling could do him in...and this kinda tale gets played out again and again in many different stories...

Which gets back to Joel...who was trying to get across that God provides for each of us, and if we just sorta find in ourselves the gifts God has given each of us..that's enough...and one shouldn't torment oneself with jealousy of other peoples' talents...or as Curly put in City Slickers...find that one thing and stick to it.

And jealously of David undoes King Saul...

"I tried to be the best I am,

But everyone wants you to be like them...

I'm not gonna work on Maggie's Farm no more..."

--Dylan

I painted myself into a corner with yesterday's post!!...so for today I just moved to another room..with wet feet!!

On looking up "hubris" , the wikipedia site explains some of it's complexities!...here a quote...pic is from wiki's Goliath site....another involved name and tale!

quote

Aristotle defined hubris as follows:
to cause shame to the victim, not in order that anything may happen to you, nor because anything has happened to you, but merely for your own gratification. Hubris is not the requital of past injuries; this is revenge. As for the pleasure in hubris, its cause is this: men think that by ill-treating others they make their own superiority the greater.

unquote

DavidDavid

Tree in the Door