Pride, a wonderful emotion

I'm currently in hibernation and have nothing creative to say for myself, so I'm going to let another brilliant blog do the talking. It taught me a lot about the word "pride" and its inner meaning.


There are a few different meanings of the emotive word PRIDE. An old saying goes “Pride before the fall”. This pride infers smugness, conceit, or even arrogance and these human traits are never popular as they contain elements of egotism and ignorance. The PRIDE that we love and need occurs when we are thrilled that someone or some organisation does something special and we feel passionate about this achievement.

When “Advance Australia Fair” is played as they raise the Aussie flag at the medal ceremony, or when our mighty Maroons lift the State of Origin Trophy (again), we feel euphorically happy, and sometimes emotions will spill over and the eyes become a little watery. That PRIDE is the good PRIDE. There is no egotism here. This feeling is one of sharing and this feeling is often experienced as a group, so it’s personal but at the same time it’s an emotion that unites the group or community. We feel better because our SELF ESTEEM has increased.

I can still remember the times when my children were “on show” – either in the school play or scoring the try that won the game. As parents nothing compares to the PRIDE we feel when our children achieve their goals and I don’t mean just winning – I mean “having a go” or bringing some kudos to their group, team or school. As they say “the heart swells with PRIDE” and very often the memory of these moments last for many years, and sometimes as long as we live.
During the last NRL season I saw Jamie Simpson score a try and he immediately grabbed the front of his Rabbitohs jersey and kissed the club logo. Jamie is a former St. Brendan’s student who overcame some massive hurdles in his life and in doing so has become an inspiration to many. What Jamie has achieved is incredible but this brave and humble young man is extremely proud of his club and of the wonderful game of Rugby League so he spontaneously and unashamedly demonstrates this PRIDE for all to see.

When I witness these moments, I feel PRIDE. I am proud of my allegiance to Rugby League and I know that there are hundreds of thousands of fellow Rugby League supporters that feel the same as me.
I know that in a few years time, I will be sitting in a magnificent world class stadium in Central Queensland and our own CQ NRL team will run onto the green grass into the white light. The Central Queensland dominated crowd of 20,000 will come to their feet and cheer for their team. A team with a predominance of Central Queensland players and individually and collectively we will have that sense of happiness, relief that it is here at last. It is this PRIDE that we Central Queenslanders need to experience. The wonderful flow-on effect of this PRIDE is the massive increase in our SELF ESTEEM as a community.