Humility and Happiness

GK Chesterton has a famous quote, "Without humility you can not enjoy anything, not even your pride," I've been reading Tom Wolfe's book, "Bonfire of the Vanities," Tom Wolfe's Wikipedia page claims that he is an atheist, and he might be, but he also seems to enjoy exploring religious themes. The books title actually comes from the book of Ecclesiastes, "Vanity of Vanities, all things are vanity,"

The one things about the book that I don't like is Tom Wolfe's lack of concern for common decency in describing things, I'm ok with starkness in literature, my favorite writers are extremely stark, Tolkien, Cormac McCarthy. But they do it in a serious way, to make a point. Tom Wolfe in my opinion, is too immodest in dealing with everyday faults, but at times in my opinion it lacks seriousness.

But what I have loved about the book is how clearly it proves the above quote from Chesterton, "Without humility you can not enjoy anything," The central character Sherman McCoy is a man with a life full of incredible blessings, he's extremely wealthy, he has a beautiful wife, a beautiful child, all of the privileges of life, etc, etc. But he is full of pride, and has no happiness. Sherman McCoy is not the only one where pride ruins things, the book is cast full of characters where their root sin is pride. It clearly shows people that are poor, outcast, that struggle because they refuse to accept humility. There is a difference between humiliation and humility. Humility is something that the rich, poor, and middle class all need.

Here's the good news, the opposite quote is also true, "with humility we can enjoy all things," Part of the lesson is of humility is that we can not make ourselves the center of the universe. Peter Kreft has a great quote, "Focus on God and other people, there a lot more interesting," There is so much in life to enjoy, people, nature, ideas, art, etc, that's enough reason to focus on humility.