Pride goeth before a fall

No one ever choked to death swallowing his pride

Temper gets you into trouble. Pride keeps you there

pride is not a virtue

So by now you get the point of this posting, pride. What is pride? According to Webster's Dictionary, the quality or state of being proud. That helps a lot. So what does Daniel have to say about proud, feeling or showing pride. Thanks Dan. This seems to be the problem with pride, everyone knows what it is but no one can tell you what it is.
The reason I'm talking about pride today is that Michael finished his run as Ben in the play, The Graduate this weekend. Everyone kept telling me what a great job he did, and he did. They also kept saying "you should be so proud". Should I only be proud of my children if they do something good? If good deeds are the source of pride where do we draw the line? Were Charlie Manson's parents proud of him? "I'm so proud that Charlie didn't kill those people himself, he just got others to do it for him". I guess not. So where is the line? When people tell me I should be proud of one of my children for some accomplishment I always try to answer that I am proud of all my children. What's the opposite of proud, ashamed? Is the line the same for ashamed as it is for pride? Can the same event conjure both? "I'm so ashamed of Michael, he drove his car into the lake" "I am so proud of Michael, he swerved his car to miss that group of people sitting next to the lake". With pride you can be humble but with shame...we can never show are faces again.
I like to take pride in the fact that my children have grown into good people. They have done so in a world that pushes you a bit towards the dark side, but that's only other peoples pride doing it. So to clear up this whole post I would like to say that I am ashamed to say I am a proud person. I am proud enough to be ashamed. It's a vicious cycle.