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Lust
Gonigle Ge Song, cover by Brandon Mc
Editors: Craig Chval Brian Dresner Laura Ge Song Omar Taranissi Missy Wheeler Graphics Editor: Brandon McGonigle Artist: Laura Ge Song writers: Lauren Baker Mary Herndon Avantika Khatri Leslie Neu Sami Pathan Jack Schoelz Shivangi Singh Tessa Vellek Photographers: Muhammad Al-rawi
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In 590 Pope Gregory I determined a list of deadly sins that could put a person in danger of eternal damnation. One thousand years later, theologian Peter Binsfeld assigned demons of Christian lore to each of the sins, illustrating how each ensnared his human prey. Popularized through the ages by popular culture, from Dante’s “Inferno” to the 1995 film “Se7en,” the deadly sins have taken hold of the human psyche. Even today the sins pervade society, influencing the daily lives of students, begging the question how they gained such prominence and what their consequences are. This edition of “Southpaw” delves into how these questions – and their answers – affect RBHS. Seven hundred years ago, Dante documented his allegorical journey into the human soul; through these stories of human nature, hopefully you can make your own insights into humanity’s mysteries. —Craig Chval
all ar t by Lau ra
The Staff
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Kylee Fuchs Mary Herndon Savannah Viles
Adviser: Robin Stover
“Southpaw” is a special edition created by The Rock staff. The Rock and “Southpaw” are publications of Rock Bridge High School, 4303 S. Providence Rd., Columbia, Mo., 65203. The Journalism: Newspaper and Honors Seminar classes distribute the publication throughout the year. “Southpaw’s” purpose is to go in-depth on a specific theme. This issue focuses on and explores the seven deadly sins and their consequences over people, especially members of RBHS. The Rock is a member of NSPA, CSPA, MIPA and International Quill and Scroll. Advertising is $50 for a quarter page, $90 for a half page and $130 for a whole page.
3/4/2011 2:35:32 PM
I
GLUTTONY
t’s no secret that people schedule their daily lives around mealtimes. Business deals are cut over lunch, TV dinners make life more convenient and tailgate parties add enjoyment to meals. Society is full of comforts, not the least of which is the ability to get food whenever one pleases. “Even from a couple years ago, the fast food industry has been growing,” junior Nikhilesh Sharma said. “It’s easier than ever to get food when you want it with all our conveniences. You can just go through a drive-thru and get food faster than ever.” However, putting too much emphasis on something needed to survive can be detrimental. “The problem is that people don’t listen to themselves. We have a problem of eating even when we’re full,” clinical dietician Ashley Ritzo said. “People exceed what they actually need, and things like weight gain and heart problems start to pop up.” But 1,500 years ago, even when fast food restaurants, ATMs and credit cards didn’t facilitate the acquirement of food, Pope Gregory I saw his subjects as needing to show restraint. In fact, he specified five different terms by which people can commit the sin of gluttony: time, quality, stimulants, quantity and eagerness. Christian denominations still see gluttony as the overconsumption of food, drink or intoxicants to the point of waste. This vice features an inappropriate craving for food or withholding it from those who truly need it. Meanwhile, advances in technology make it ever simpler to commit this sin. And an increasing amount of teenagers have their own cars, making it easy to run and get food. But these conveniences also make it easy to eat before mealtime, one of the ways to commit gluttony. “I definitely think that conveniences today make acquiring and eating food much easier,” junior Mehdi Ben-Ayed said. “Nowadays, you can even just call a store, and they’ll deliver fast food to you.” Eating delicacies is another way to be gluttonous, and restaurants help to spur these cravings. Restaurants offer the option to eat delicious food without doing any of the cooking or cleaning work involved. These make delicacies easier to come by and the sin of gluttony easier to commit. “I’ve actually been to a few restaurants that serve some really crazy food: things like alligator, shark fin, eels, even some things that might not be legal,” senior Steven Priddy said. “But I don’t think it should be a sin, though. People should eat whatever they want whenever they want. [However], I could see why it would be considered a sin because of the excessiveness.” Seeking sauces and seasonings for the enjoyment of the palate is the stimulant part of acting gluttonous. This could include preparing foods with special ingredients or methods, using exotic recipes or even licking the plate for pleasure. “After a really good dessert like ice cream or cake, maybe I would resort to licking a plate [but] not usually,” sophomore Clayton Stevens said. “But I would never think of it as actual gluttony.” One of the most obvious ways to commit gluttony is to exceed the amount of necessary food. Oftentimes, people do this because what they are eating is especially good, such as during holidays in which people gather together to eat special meals. But many of the ways to commit gluttony come together; if someone has particularly good food to eat, they are more susceptible to overeat. “I went to Fuddruckers once and decided to take the Fudd Five challenge, where they give you this huge burger and fries and shake and you have to finish all of it in less than 25 minutes,” Ben-Ayed said. “It was actually pretty good food, but it ended horribly. I was eating the buns, and there was just nowhere to put the food I was consuming; I just threw up.” The fifth way to commit the sin of gluttony is by eagerness. If one consumes food too eagerly, even if he were eating the proper amount of food or even if the food was not luxurious, he would be committing gluttony. For someone who is particularly hungry, worrying about committing a sin connected to food is not usually the first thing to cross his mind. “When I come back from doing a lot of activity and I haven’t eaten in a while, I definitely would get hungry,” Sharma said. “My tendency is to just eat a lot to calm the hunger. I don’t really think of how it would be perceived.” The diffusion of gluttony into American culture is perhaps most evident in the annual Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Competition, in which competitors stuff as many hot dogs down their throats as possible in 10 minutes. The competition, held July 4 no less, had more than 1.7 million people watching the 2010 event in person or on television, according to ESPN. Competitive eating is most popular in the United States. “When you go to restaurants, the portion sizes are always really huge, and commercials and advertisements are always pushing unhealthy food
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versus healthy foods,” Ritzo said. “Americans seems to have the diet mentality like they’re always trying to diet, diet and diet. Eventually, that wears on them, and they go in the opposite direction and overeat.” St. Gregory viewed this excessive consumption as another way to commit gluttony. However, this differs from culture to culture and person to person. Many believe having enough food to show off is a sign of prosperity and success, while others regard it as excess and disregard for those who are less fortunate. “I don’t see the sin about it completely; I think that since someone paid money for their food that they should eat it,” Ben-Ayed said. “And maybe that money will, like, reimburse the people who made it, the people who are in need, I guess.” Because the 21st century has become so assimilated with gluttony, there have been consequences to many people. The CDC reports that 68 percent of American adults and 27.6 percent of adolescents are overweight or obese. But more consequences can follow: St. Thomas Aquinas of the 13th century said the punishment for gluttony in hell was to be force-fed rats, toads and snakes. “The ‘Divine Comedy’ tells of how there’s an entire circle of hell dedicated to the punishment of gluttony,” Sharma said. “Just imagine a place where a person only got punished for being gluttonous. It’s a bit frightening thinking about how you can sin doing something so essential.” In the end it is a person’s own responsibility to control how he consumes, and more control will most likely equal a healthier being. But many of the ways by which one can commit gluttony may seem outdated, and the ever-changing times make it difficult to live how a saint in the sixth century would. Practicing moderation is the key to avoid sin, obesity and rats in the stomach. “Ultimately, if you eat less calories than your body is using, then you’ll lose weight. If you take in more calories than your body is using, then you’ll gain weight,” Ritzo said. “You really need to listen to what your body tells you. So if you’re hungry, go ahead and eat. But only eat until you’re full. You have to control yourself and know when is enough.” —Sami Pathan
3/4/2011 2:36:07 PM
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GREED
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ophomore Atreyo Ghosh envisions a bleak future for the United States. The culprit, he said, will be greed. “If you are not going to have any morals trying to obtain something,” Ghosh said, “you are going to lose yourself by trying to get there the fastest up, and it will corrupt your personality and make you immoral.” Ghosh said greed for wealth drives people to step on each other’s toes. He believes people associate money with happiness today and that more than 95 percent of Americans are greedy. “Like on Wall Street, the people want more money. They are already rich. Last year you had all the C.E.O.s who got a huge amount of bonuses, and they already had so much money,” Ghosh said. “You saw them get more and more, and they want more. So wealth is never satisfied because you always want more. ... Instead of maybe one plane, you want two planes, so it will never be satisfied.” Author Michael Rothberg has firsthand experience with how devastating greed can be, especially in the scenario Ghosh described. In his book, “American Greed,” Rothberg’s role as investment adviser representative of the Fortune 500 companies led him to the cause of the American recession in 2008. Rothberg held greed responsible for leading America into a “crashing wave of catastrophes not seen in our history:” industries changed permanently, millions upon millions of people lost their jobs and families were torn apart as economies collapsed. He said Americans infatuated with greed strove to make whatever they could in the quickest period of time or in the easiest fashion. They carried an annual mortgage of $200,000 when all they could afford was $10,000; companies recognized profit margins beyond their wildest dreams; people lied on their loan applications for larger than they could afford. The result of wanting more than what is allotted in peoples’ fates is evident in what the world saw after December of 2008. As Ghosh said, because of this behavior, people lose sight of themselves. “You are not so focused on the relationships so much. You are focused more on what you can get with your money,” Ghosh said. “You will be spending things frivolously. You are going to [put] so much value on [unnecessary] items. Like if you go to a third-world country, people have so much value in a bucket of water … but if you have all the money in the world, you are not going to value a tiny amount of silver or platinum.” Psychology teacher Rachel Proffitt said the more affluent cultures, such as the United States, appear to be greedier than their counterparts; however, a lot of this greed is a result of subconsciousness. “I don’t think [their greed] is inherent,” Proffitt said. “I don’t think westerners are naturally greedy, but I do think there is this sort of — you come to want what you have, and you don’t want to give things up. The word has such negative connotations that I hate to call everybody greedy, but we have to acknowledge that we get things that other people have to pay the price for.” The hunger to obtain greater wealth is not the only concern for Ghosh: power and fame only destroy. Junior Stephen Turban envisions the future Ghosh sees as corruption; he regards his self-centered attitude to life as being extremely greedy of himself. “It’s the idea that I am living my life for myself — very individualistic approach to the world,” Turban said. I want “influence and fame because that’s one of the few barometers our society has to judge success in someone’s life or success in someone’s life in the future. I want to die, but when I die, I don’t want to not exist. And either that means fame or lasting influence.” Although Turban does not consider everything he does an act of greed, he knows almost everything he does is so it will help his future. He repeatedly sacrifices pleasure for hard work. “Every night I study Spanish for three hours until I fall asleep, literally, in front of my computer. I enjoy it to a certain extent,” Turban said. “But mostly it’s because I feel like it’s this higher purpose. What makes me most happy is the idea that I
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am working towards a goal. There’s a ton of stuff that could make me happy in the present. I could use drugs; I could have crazy sex parties. True happiness, to me, comes with the idea that I am working towards something bigger than what I am. And that’s greed.” Turban thinks 99.9 percent of people are just like him, if not worse. For example, he says the school grading system is merely an environment that promotes this “sin.” Turban believes the grades and progress seen in schools today is a result of students’ greed. “It’s the worst thing in the world. Our society at large basically [is] allowing [greed] to exist. We are facilitating it,” Turban said. “The cliché example of college application is everyone [doing] stuff for their college application. But the fact of the matter is that from the time we are kids, we are just not shown a love of learning. We are shown learning as a gateway to other things. We don’t see learning for its intrinsic value. So that’s the fall of society.” Proffitt, however, does not attribute greed to students trying to achieve certain grades. Her definition of greed — getting things beyond the required at the expense of someone else paying for it — does not make greed the link between prosperity and grades. “To me, greed comes with this connotation that someone gets hurt, so I don’t think [greed] is quite the word,” Proffitt said. “I think some of these people are too focused on grades, [but] unless they are bribing someone ... I don’t know who in this equation is hurt by it.” Turban argued the one hurt in this equation is the student, as he or she loses the desire to learn in the midst of a system that facilitates achievement on the basis of grades or the amount of “stuff” a résumé carries. “Ultimately, most people do most things because they see some benefit at the end of the day,” Turban said. “People start to do a ton of things because they think it will help them out on their college résumé or it will help them for their future. It sucks that they are doing it just for college.” Author Richard Taplinger recognizes this power of greed in “The Social Basis of Society: Greed.” He associates greed with progress by crediting greed as motivation to improve old practices. Likewise, Turban identifies this potential but not necessarily the means to reach that potential. “I don’t think any person can do all these things that they put on their résumé without being changed to some extent. The motivation kind of sucks that they are only doing it to put it on their résumé,” Turban said. “As long as they are doing something to help out society, I guess we shouldn’t complain.” –shivangi singh
3/4/2011 1:28:52 PM
6
E N V Y
P
andora opened her box, and all the evils came flooding into the world. According to legend, people began to covet one another’s characteristics and possessions, and envy came to life. “Of the seven deadly sins, envy is the only one that is no fun,” said Joseph Epstein in an e-mail interview. Epstein is an emeritus lecturer of Northwestern University Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, the author of “Envy” and the former editor of American Scholar Magazine published by the Phi Beta Kappa society. Envy is frequently confused with jealousy, which is an entirely different emotion, Epstein said. While envy is simply based on the competition between the subject and the rival, in jealousy there is a third party, the beloved, who is the point of concern. “The principle distinction between envy and jealousy is that one is jealous of what one has and envious of what other people have,” Epstein said. For instance, “I am jealous of my girlfriend, dignity [and] civil rights but envious of your athletic ability, BMW convertible and youth.” Therefore, the emotion of envy destructs one’s sense of well-being or self-worth, psychologically affecting the subject, said Deborah Wright, director of Mental Health at the University
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of Missouri—Columbia. “I help the individual step back and reassess their internal values and to become educated about socio-cultural contributions,” Wright said. “There is a lot of research data that shows that individuals who routinely engage in compassionate meditation report higher levels of happiness and contentment. ... [It] replaces feelings of envy with feelings of loving kindness, a true hope and desire to assist others, to celebrate in the happiness of others and to be of assistance to others at any time we can.” Although there are ways to overcome envy and its effects, students can feel this diminished confidence when they fail to achieve at the same academic standard as their friends. “I get envious of people constantly,” junior Paul Leonard said. “It’s something that’s not easily repressed. No matter how hard you try to avoid it, it keeps coming back.” However, this “evil” envy can have a positive effect, according to Epstein, motivating people to improve themselves. “Perhaps the only obvious benefit to envy is when it is emulative,” Epstein said, “when it stirs the person who feels it to emulate the people he or she envies and thereby improves him or herself.”
3/4/2011 2:37:34 PM
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Although Leonard admitted society does not always consider envy a positive trait, he experienced its emulative quality, as it motivated him to achieve higher academic standards. “After about 20 minutes [of studying], I tend to get restless and want nothing more than to move on with my life,” Leonard said. “But if I ever feel as if I’m lacking certain knowledge that my peers have, then I will take a few minutes out of my day to look over what it is that I’ve missed in order to be better prepared.” However, Wright argued envy is never beneficial and that people can only progress by having the intention of acting on kindness. “Some will claim that it encourages individuals to work harder and strive to ‘be more.’ This is nonsense,” Wright said. “We become more of who we are and reach greater potential by intentionally seeking to see others and approach life on a daily basis from the perspective of loving kindness. Great and beautiful things unfold when humans allow themselves to be truly human, less than perfect and vulnerable, and when they embrace others in the same way.” Envy can carry over to material items and social status, as students covet one another’s fashion accessories, homes or technology. As Wright pointed out, envy is
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based on one’s belief that another has something of “superior value,” but these perceptions are frequently inaccurate. “Much about western culture encourages envy, including the intense valuing of things over relationships,” Wright said. “I doubt that Mother Theresa struggled with envy. I doubt she cared much about how others perceived her looks, her position in life and her life choices. Instead, she focused on her true life values and passions and lived a very fulfilling life, leaving an incredible legacy.” Junior Becca Rice said advertising impacts her and makes her feel envious of others that have new products and clothing. Between working two jobs and maintaining a social and family life, Rice still finds time to shop about once a month. “For some reason, having something new always makes me feel happier. And when I wear it, I feel prettier,” Rice said. The commercial industry “puts the desire in your mind to have something you don’t own.” Wright concurs that social media perpetuates envy. People try to present themselves the way they want others to perceive them, often losing their identity and cause low self-esteem, Wright said. “Individuals attempt to ‘manage perceptions,’ including never
leaving the house without the ‘right clothes, makeup, etc.,’ not allowing company to enter our homes unless furniture is perfectly positioned and all things are properly cleaned and in place,” Wright said. “When people engage in these behaviors, they inadvertently are reinforcing the internal belief that their worth is truly somehow connected to their looks, the car they drive, the home they live in, their academic or sport ability, etc.” However, junior Emily Perry explained envy as a teen malady, attributing her perception that others do not earn their material goods to her youth. “I know now it’s dumb and won’t matter in the future, but when I see girls who are way more spoiled than me, it makes me mad because I need to earn to get the things I want,” Perry said. “And I feel dumb even being [envious], but I am a teenager, and material things are really important, especially in high school, and they can influence popularity.” Perry thinks even if one person is much wealthier than another, a true friendship can last. However, Wright warned that if envy controls a relationship, it is difficult to have the close support of a successful friendship. “It is impossible to truly feel loving kindness and true support and compassion for another’s
well-being and feel envious at the same time,” Wright said. “People with high levels of envy are usually lonely, desperately wanting genuine connection, and push others away to get noticed and to impress others.” Students experience envy within their friendships, altering the quality of relationship. Sophomore Dahnya Rogers has had her best friend since seventh grade, but she sometimes envies her friend’s beauty. “One of my best friends is gorgeous, so everywhere we go attention tends to be focused on her, and as much as I hate to admit it, sometimes it’s depressing,” Rogers said. “I try not to let it ever come between us, but sometimes it makes it hard not to be [envious], but I know it’s not her fault.” The idea of envy in friendships and other relationships extends beyond the walls of RBHS, as Epstein addressed. “Envy can destroy friendships, even close family feeling,” Epstein said. “A brilliant but properly cynical French writer named La Rochefoucauld said that we can stand a great [deal] of misfortune among our friends but not too much success. … Envy is sour anger, dislike sometimes rising to hatred, at the natural advantages or good fortune of others.” —Tessa Vellek
3/4/2011 2:37:52 PM
lust
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he camera focuses on a saucy strawberry-blonde girl, who shouts as she storms out the front door, “I’m going to study!” to which her mother quickly responds, “No, you’re not” in an attempt to stop her. After the word “Skins” and a promotion flashes across the screen, the same girl is seen at a party — with several close-ups on her breasts, shirtless boys and couples making out. Within a couple of shots, the same rowdy girl is in the bathroom having sex with a teenage boy. Lisa Fullam, D.V.M., Th.D., assistant professor of moral theology at the Jesuit School of Theology at Santa Clara University in Berkley, described a “hook-up society” of today’s youth where constant casual sex can adversely affect sex life later. With an unconventional approach to the topic of sex for a religious person, Fullam aims to answer all sexual questions by first assuming that “sex is good” and can be beneficial to a person when performed in a healthy relationship. But, she said, in the wrong context, sex can be damaging to oneself. “If you’re constantly picking [random people] up for one-night stands, you actually shut yourself off to intimacy, which you have to do in order to do that,” Fullam said. “And then later in life when you find yourself really wanting to make that connection, you find you’re unable to.” Senior Alayna Nieters, who considers sex “a natural thing,” said she does not see the negative effect of a hook-up culture. In fact, she said she thinks it could even be advantageous to some. “Honestly, I think [casual hook-ups are] kind of empowering for women; a lot of the time now it’s girls who are more talking about [just hooking up], and I feel that I hear a lot more about guys who want relationships and girls who just want to hook up with people,” Nieters said. “And I feel like if you can go out and do that, then it’s good for you, you know? But I think it’s a personal thing — if you can do that and not get attached to somebody.” Nieters, who acknowledges she has felt lust on several occasions, said she immediately places guys into one of two groups upon meeting
them: the “I-could-see-this-going-somewhere” and the friend group. Likewise, she noted guys have similar instant reactions to girls. While Nieters tries to “highlight” her best assets, she thinks some girls go too far, and guys notice. “I feel like sometimes girls [are too scantily clad], and guys aren’t attracted to that. Like when girls wear really low-cut shirts, and guys are like, ‘Oh, my God, you can see all of her boobs; it’s so gross,’” Nieters said. “And it kind of surprises you because you think, like, ‘Oh that’s what they want,’ but not necessarily.” Junior Parker Sutherland embraces standard Christian values and tries to live his life staying away from lust. He does this by maintaining rules when in alone situations with a girl: full clothing, and nothing past kissing and holding hands. “My religion plays a part; it sets a moral standard for what I feel like I should and shouldn’t do,” Sutherland said. “Religion doesn’t control me — I choose to live that way and follow whatever morals [I choose]. Like in the Bible it says, ‘Don’t have sex before you’re married,’ and I [don’t push limits] a little further [because] when you get to some areas, lust controls you.” Similarly, senior Briana Phillips also seeks to emulate Christian values. While she admits sinning is inevitable, she strives to be aware of hers and deal with them — even as she admittedly lusts for traditional hunks in “chick flick” movies and television shows, like Neal Caffrey in “White Collar.” “People will get calloused or immunity to certain sins because it happens regularly. ... Christians have this word, ‘sanctification’: you constantly are trying to work on just recognizing your sin, I guess, and working on fixing it. A lot of times, you don’t even recognize [your sins], and so you try to be aware about it,” Phillips said. “And when I think about Neal Caffrey or whatnot, I don’t necessarily feel bad about it at the time, but if it constantly becomes an issue, then I’ll confront it if I recognize it. … I’ll pray, read the bible and whatnot to work with it.” Fullam said romantic literature and portrayals of relationships can be helpful and that
“People will get calloused or immunity to certain sins because it happens regularly.”
—Briana Phillips, senior
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a “sexual appetite” is a healthy response that lets humans know they are “alive and well.” However, Fullam did say certain aspects of sex can be negative, such as common depictions of sex without emotion that can lead to a desensitization of sex. “What makes pornography ‘pornography’ isn’t so much just the fact that it’s sexual but that it’s sex without context. Consider the standard plot — if you can call it a plot — of a porn movie: there’s a knock at the door, she answers the door almost naked, and there’s a repairman who happens to be handsome, and within three minutes they’re naked and having sex,” Fullam said. “The problem with that is the fact that it takes [sex] out of perspective, per se.” Senior Courtney Johnson, like Sutherland, abstains from sex as a personal decision, instead of based on religion. Johnson said popular culture, including pornographic material, can spark a desire for sex by portraying sex often and in ways that make it seem meaningless, encouraging lust instead of love. “Especially for the younger crowd, [graphic media] makes [sex] seem so much more acceptable, like more of something you just do, rather than an experience you would share with someone you really love,” Johnson said. “It makes it seem like you do it just to do it and that it has no meaning.” In avoiding sex Johnson is waiting for a “strong bond” with a person, which fulfills what Fullam said about achieving intimacy instead of shutting off to it. Nieters looks at the topic from an almostopposite perspective and thinks of sex as “just sex” but does think a strong bond, along with the capacity for honesty, trust and sacrifice, is important to a “healthy relationship.” “I feel like at the heart of it, you should be able to have a relationship with somebody and love them without having sex,” Nieters said. “I guess there comes a point where you’re just like, ‘I like you so much [that] I wouldn’t even have sex with you if you didn’t want to have sex with me.’” —Lauren Baker
3/4/2011 2:39:06 PM
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3/4/2011 2:39:22 PM
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PRIDE I
n the late 500s, following centuries of wrongdoing, Pope Gregory I set in stone what would become known as the seven deadly sins. And the worst of the seven, according to the Holy See, was pride. The Bible calls pride “an abomination to the Lord.” Traditionally, Christians consider pride to be the root of all sins and the very worst offense against God. It was pride that caused Satan, once an angel, to rebel against God, fall from Heaven and become the head demon. Pride was also the first human sin, in the form of Adam and Eve believing they knew better than God’s command. The ancient Hebrew pictograph, used in early, untranslated books of the Bible, for pride depicts “lifting strength” — or a “lifting up of oneself.” Dave Cover, senior pastor at The Crossing Church, 3615 Southland Dr., said pride makes one focus on self. “Pride is a trick. A lie. It’s the belief that human beings are greater and better off acting against or independent of the Creator. Pride basically says, ‘What’s best for me is what I think is what’s best for me, not God,’” Cover said in an e-mail interview. “Pride says, ‘I am wiser than God. God is keeping me back from what I need for me.’ So truth becomes ‘my truth.’ Good is defined as ‘my good.’ And so we act independently of God and his truth. We see what we want. If it looks good to us, we take it and ‘eat.’” Cover said pride is the root of the other six deadly sins, as are feelings like self-pity and people-pleasing. “Probably every other ‘sin’ stems from our pride — the belief that our will is our best,” Cover said. “So in that sense pride is the worst of sins because it is the root out of which other ‘branches’ of sins grow.” RBHS is home to many students who agree that pride is the worst sin. To senior Megan Wiederanders, a life spent pushing others aside and working for oneself is a life squandered. “All you get is worldly success, [which] doesn’t bring true happiness, and it just wastes your life away because you didn’t do anything worthwhile,” Wie-
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deranders said. “And if you treat people badly … then you’ve hurt them, along with hurting yourself, so I think [being prideful is] one of the worst things you can do.” Senior Marc Micatka claims pride is only inappropriate if undeserved. He said people can be prideful only if their aptitude is equal to their boasts. “I tend to inflate abilities in order to sound impressive as much as the next person. ... I don’t enjoy being a braggart about things I can’t proceed to prove,” Micatka said. “If you have the talent or ability to back it up, [though], it’s certainly not pride. However, if you’re going around continually inflating your own abilities, I suppose it’s sinful. It’s also just annoying.” In competition some students believe humility has its uses. As a member of the quiz bowl team, Micatka recognizes there are other team members who are more adept than he in subjects like mathematics or medical science. “There’s people on our team who specialize in different areas,” Micatka said. “I’ll reserve my opinion if I’m unsure because I know that he knows it better than I do. ... Instead of pretending like I know everything, I recognize that I don’t and that I need someone who does know everything.” However, senior golfer Meghan Mueller pointed out that swagger in sports is acceptable in small doses. While Cover said that “humility bonds a team,” Mueller lets herself take pride in a single moment of achievement but then tries to let that pride go before she becomes too boastful. “I think that pride plays a big role in sports because I can tell when people become full of themselves, and they don’t realize that there are other people competing against them,” Mueller said. “They think that they are the greatest thing to happen to the sport, and when they don’t perform well, they get upset about it. I believe that if athletes were more humble, then there wouldn’t be as many of the ‘divas’ in sports as there are now.” Junior Nick Dale agreed that both pride and humility are necessary for success in competitions. He uses his pride to propel him in his running career when
photo illustration by Mary Herndon
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people cast their doubts on him. However, Dale also acknowledges humility as an asset. “You have to believe within yourself and your team that you can master any challenge that is set before you. At the same time, you have to be humble enough to visualize your opponent and not underestimate them, for if you’re too prideful or vain, the competition a lot of times prevails over your lack of focus,” Dale said. “It all comes down to having the balance of being humble and understanding the rules of the game, yet being proud enough to believe you can do anything.” Outside of sports, senior Brig Clark feels free pointing out that men are more prone to self-exaltation. This might be, Clark said, because humility leaves men feeling vulnerable. “I think pride is definitely more prevalent in guys just because I feel like we put up such a huge wall — that we want to be perfect,” Clark said. “I know girls do that, too, but guys judge it on each other. You want to be the manliest man you can be. You want to be super good at sports: the athletic guy. You just want to be looked up to.” Sophomore Wells Woods said though he doesn’t think of himself as arrogant, he doesn’t feel he often needs help, partially because he is reluctant to “admit I’m weak.” Clark claimed when males feel humble enough to “let down that wall,” a guy’s image can be called into question. Fear of judgment seems to be a factor in male pride. On the feminine side of pride, Wiederanders believes girls in high school are more concerned with physical pride: beauty and social status. “Some girls get so immersed in who’s the most beautiful, most desirable, most popular, etc. It’s like a lot of us believe that we’re only skin-deep. We’re only as good of people as our appearances are,” Wiederanders said. “Sometimes we’re so prideful that we don’t even want to be seen with people who ‘aren’t as good as we are.’ We become so prideful that all we think about is how our lives and our appearances are looking to others, not how we’re affecting others.” Cover, though, doesn’t limit either gender’s ability to show pride in one area. “Pride in guys makes them insecure and, therefore, harsh, angry, boastful, violent, critical,” Cover said. “Pride in women can be that, too, but often it shows up in self-pity, jealousy, obsession with physical appearances, hurt feelings. Guys can certainly fall into that, too.” Indeed, in the current culture obsessed with self-esteem, many students consider pride as natural, even essential, to a normal lifestyle. Senior Sean Harper said he believes pride to be “the least of the seven deadly sins.” “Pride is important,” Harper said. “Without it everyone is just another sheep waiting to be slaughtered. Without pride and a drive to succeed, people don’t really live, they just exist.” Sophomore Tyler Hill said though pride is often an unpleasant characteristic, it’s hard to view it as one of the worst sins because there doesn’t seem to be “direct consequences” to pride. Hill personally believes it’s unhealthy to stay on the extreme of either side of the argument, that pride and humility should balance out “like yin and yang.” “Time and time again, history has shown that arrogance can destroy people, careers and countries, so it makes sense to have doses of both,” Micatka said. Christian author C.S. Lewis, who said pride “always means enmity,” wrote in 1942 that pride “has been the chief cause of misery in every nation and every family since the world began.” Cover agrees with the adage that pride does indeed go before a fall, citing the world wars as examples. “Every destruction in society stems from pride,” Cover said. “Every tyrannical government throughout history, [there] was pride at the top of power.” For maintaining humility, Clark enlists the assistance of his friends to keep himself honest. “Pride is a hard thing to change for yourself because I think it’s hard to see from a self-perspective how prideful you are. And so I rely a lot on my friends and mentors to tell me straight up, ‘You’re way too selfish in this right now; you’re putting way too much importance in making yourself look good,’” Clark said. “And I feel like if I’m super prideful, they’ll notice it. I just hopefully rely on them to keep me grounded in that, and sometimes they’re going to be scared to say it, so that’s when pride takes over [in me].” Though Clark relies on friends, he recognizes they aren’t always the best people to give him advice on humility. “Definitely in high school it’s hard to [be kept accountable] with friends because I don’t think relationships in high school are deep enough to really trust someone that’s going to tell you straight-up what’s going on,” Clark said. “I just don’t think high school people are mature enough to do that.” Because of occasional immaturity, accountability from older friends is important to Clark, as well; through church Clark has gained a few trusted mentors who keep him humble. Though the seven deadly sins originated with Christianity with pride as the worst of all, Christians aren’t the only ones who think this way; most world religions frown upon pride. The Quran, Islam’s holy book, says, “Evil is the abode of the proud.” Compassion is a central idea in Buddhism, which makes pride highly inappropriate. Buddhist author Sonam Richen wrote, “As long as we feel and act as though we are the center of the universe, we will never develop real concern for others.” Cover said the only cure for a swelled head is trusting that God’s will is the best plan for you. “You don’t have to be selfish to get what’s best for you. Rather, you can let God tell you what’s best for you, and that is to love, to serve, to work hard, to listen to people, care about people, enjoy people,” Cover said. “Pride doesn’t want to depend upon God. Humility breeds confidence. Pride breeds insecurity. ” —Mary Herndon
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should be doing the work. And I was tardy about 30 times last semester to my first hour. I embrace the laziness.” By second semester of senior year, most students get the notorious feeling known as “senioritis” and essentially catch the worst case of academic sloth. “It’s not that I’m tired all the time or lethargic. I feel there are better things I could be doing with my time than homework or the chores I have to do,” McManus said. “If someone could thoroughly explain to me why I have to be doing something and reason it out ... then usually I’ll do it. There is a reason behind getting good grades: you want to go to college, and you want to be successful in life. So, ultimately, I’d have to push myself to succeed in school.” A slothful person’s life resides in the comfort of his or her chair, but according to research from the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Prevention, women who sit for six hours per day are 37 percent more likely to die early and men who sit for six hours per day are 18 percent more likely to die earlier than their standing counterparts. Cullen’s job for the University of Missouri—Columbia at Jesse Auditorium is a sitter’s dream. “I run the lights for 30 minutes at a time, and it requires me to sit in a very comfortable
chair making minimal finger movements and getting paid large amounts of money,” Cullen said. “Needless to say, I don’t work that much.” According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 34 percent of Americans over 20 years of age are obese. The recent influx of sedentary jobs has been very accommodating to America’s sitters. A major consequence of being slothful is the damage the lack of activity can have on one’s social life. “It takes me a long time to react in any radical way. When someone says something to me that would generate an emotional response, I don’t have that response until a couple of hours later,” Cullen said. “I don’t make the effort to argue with girlfriends, so if we get into an argument that she doesn’t get over with real quickly, it usually doesn’t go over well. Same with friends.” Phillip K. Wood, Ph.D, professor of psychology at the University of Missouri—Columbia, has researched the behaviors of young adults. Lack of self-discipline is the underlying cause of slothful tendencies. Wood said the key to fending off laziness is to begin the day early. “We focus a lot on people being able to delay gratification and being self-directed and be autonomous,” Wood said. “On
the flipside of that is sloth. Individuals who are more impulsive tend to become single parents, have lower education, higher rates of divorce, problems with credit and problems with substance abuse and obesity.” Early morning show choir rehearsals have helped junior Joel Johnstone fend off slothful tendencies. Though his mother serves as his alarm clock, waking him up for morning rehearsals, Johnstone has kept a decent attendance record. “I’m not lazy with stuff I’m enthusiastic about or that I like. It gives me something to do other than just lie around my house,” Johnstone said. “The early morning rehearsals have helped me be awake more often so I can get more work on time. It is one of the only things I’m on time.” A day in the life of a slothful person is confined to the room, bed or couch. As the night dwindles, Cullen only manages to pull off a shirt before collapsing on his untidy mattress and falling asleep. “I’m going to go from one couch here in my house to another couch in a college dorm to another couch in an apartment to another couch in a house to a couch in a retirement home,” Cullen said. “I kind of want to be buried in a couch. While I’m sitting down, I can do anything.” -LESLIE NEU
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aking up among his tangled bed sheets, junior Cory Cullen looks at the alarm clock. It’s after noon, and he rolls over. His weak arm tosses a cover over his head. It’s too early. An hour passes — still no movement. The world progresses outside his window. Finally, he melts out of bed, stumbles to his computer chair and finishes another hour of sleep beside his PC-TV-Xbox desk combo. “Now it’s about 4:35 p.m., and I walk upstairs, sit down on the couch and make my parents make me breakfast-lunch-supper,” Cullen said. “Then I take another nap, and now it’s about 6:30 p.m. And then I stumble into my bed, and I repeat.” School doesn’t mix well with such a sluggish lifestyle. Apathy toward homework has affected senior Ian McManus’ grades, but he manages to remain an honors student and attributes his acceptable grades to his desire to go to college. “Oftentimes, I don’t do [homework],” McManus said. “I always feel like I could be doing something that doesn’t suck as much. I like to sleep [as] opposed to do[ing] my homework. I value school when I learn something from it. If I don’t feel like I’m taking anything away from the class, I don’t feel like I
photo illustration by Savannah Viles
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unior Caleb Wilfong’s constant disruptions tested his teacher’s patience. After several warnings, she finally decided to take disciplinary action and informed Wilfong that because he would not stop talking, he had to go to the office. Wilfong pleaded for a second chance, promising to remain quiet for the rest of class, but to no avail. In a fury Wilfong unzipped his binder and swung it around his head, sending papers flying across the room. He then flipped over his desk, kicked his chair to the ground and stormed out of class. These events took place when Wilfong was in sixth grade, but the behavior landed him a spot in anger management. “I had a problem with authority. Teachers would tell me to do something, and I would tell them no,” Wilfong said. “I [also] had a problem, like [when] a refrigerator door hit me on the head or if a broom fell and hit me and hurt me, I’d throw the broom or I’d punch the refrigerator door.” After the incident in Wilfong’s class, his teachers met with his parents to fix Wilfong’s problems at school. “That was actually the defining moment that sent me [to anger management], like, ‘O.K., this kid needs to go,’” Wilfong said. “The teachers went and talked to my parents, and my parents saw the inanimate object stuff at home, and they put two and two together and were just like, ‘Yeah. Good idea.’” Struggling to control anger can transform emotion into wrath. According to Correctional Counseling, Inc., as many as 20 percent of Americans may struggle with anger problems and many of these people end up in anger management. Licensed clinical social worker Michael Kaplan said there is no known scientific cause for why some people struggle to control their anger. However, Kaplan said there is universal treatment for all patients: cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT. CBT is “helping people to identify their thoughts in a given situation about their underlying beliefs about themselves and other people and the world,” Kaplan said. “And it’s helping them defeat how those thoughts and beliefs affect their fashions or their moods. And it’s helping them build ways to just try to see things in a more balanced way. The more balanced you are in your thoughts, the more balanced you are in your moods and be-
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photo illustration by Muhammad Al-Rawi and Savannah Viles
haviors.” Junior Megan Meier spent two years in anger management learning techniques similar to CBT. She said anger management has changed the way she interacts with the people around her. “I’ve been able to control it a lot better than I have ever been. I’m not the same person exactly, like, I don’t have those anger problems,” Meier said. Anger management “made me realize how I acted was completely out of line and [that] I handled things wrong.” Meier said since she has left anger management, she has tried to be more patient with other people. However, when she is on the soccer field is a different story. Last fall at an out-of-state tournament with her competitive soccer team, Meier fought with a player on another team after the player grabbed Meier’s jersey. “She dove in, and then I just got mad, and we started throwing each other and grabbing each other’s jerseys until she ended up on the ground,” Meier said. “She stood up, and she was screaming stuff like, ‘Don’t touch me,’ and stuff, ‘You bitch.’ … Then I told her to ‘back the f--- off you dirty little c---.’ And our faces, our noses weren’t touching, but we were face-to-face right in front of the audience.” Meier said these incidents occur about once or twice a season, but because they happen on the soccer field, she feels differently about them than incidents at home or at school. “I don’t really regret it,” Meier said.
“I mean, granted, I’m sure, it might have looked a little dumb. But I don’t really know. Because it’s soccer, it’s different than real life. In soccer I wouldn’t believe that it looked dumb because I don’t enjoy girls doing what they did. Like, I can’t put up with that. ... I know it’s kind of a funny story to take back to use the ‘c-word’ because I never have before. But it’s not something I regret.” Wilfong still has outbursts of anger, but he makes sure that he only gets upset about something that matters to him. His main concerns are friends, family and cross country, and incidents that interfere with these relationships are what make him angriest. “I’m pretty easy-going, chill,” Wilfong said. “But [when somebody tries] to get into my business and try to make my business theirs, like if they feel like they want to be a part of my life and make me mad, then I’ll let them be a part of my life and really screw them over.” Cross country coach Neal Blackburn was one of Wilfong’s teachers in sixth and seventh grade when Wilfong started anger management. His constant contact with Wilfong and an understanding attitude have made him stand out among teachers in Wilfong’s eyes. “A lot of the teachers wanted to take action and do special things and treat me differently than other kids just because I was a troublemaker,” Wilfong said. “Blackburn and my parents were some of the few people who actually
were just like, ‘No, this kid’s going to be okay. Just let him grow out of it.’” Assistant principals and counselors work as a team to provide a relationship with students similar to the one Blackburn provides for Wilfong. Assistant Principal Lisa Nieuwenhuizen works with anger-related issues several times a week. She said treating students with respect helps to prepare them for lives outside of high school. “I’ve found that students like to be treated like adults, be spoken with [as] adults, as rational adults,” Nieuwenhuizen said. “but it’s dialing down the anger so you can get to the rational conversation and the issue of what’s really bothering them. … Really, I think the bigger issue is about teaching young adults the tools they need to be successful in life, and that’s dealing with difficult situations, difficult people and how to express your frustrations without crossing a line.” Wilfong still actively works to manage his anger. He feels staying conscious of the weight of his actions is important in order to keep his anger under control. “A lot of people are good people who you don’t want to take it out on,” Wilfong said. “A lot of times you take it out on your friends or girlfriend, the people you care about most or your parents, and that’s the wrong thing to do. You probably shouldn’t take it out on the people you don’t like, but it’s better them than the people you love.” —Jack Schoelz
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