For those who are feeling reflective during this time of the year, I recommend that you attempt the Proust questionnaire. It is a series of gently probing questions – ostensibly originating from an 18th century parlour game made popular by French novelist Marcel Proust – that tries to make sense of one’s personality, values and world view, etc. (I know it sounds meh, but it is really more fun than I make it out to be. You can try the famous curated list from Vanity Fair here.)

Anyway, I’ve picked at the questionnaire from time to time. Over the years, depending on where I’m at in life, I might offer different answers. But there is a particular question that stands out, and my answer to that one has always remained unchanged. It asks: ‘What is the trait you most deplore in others?’ And my answer: ‘The lack of humility.’

Chest-thumping in all its forms, whether forthright or, worse, cheaply disguised, really bugs me. One time, my entire Zen reserve for the year was expended in an instant as I listened to a luxury watch-wielding, supercar-driving doctor lament about how hard it was for him to make money. Another time, an acquaintance proclaimed at dinner, to no one that he needed to impress, that his career is of greater significance than everyone else’s at the table.

Pride – the misplaced and unexamined kind – is horrible to witness. It is like taking a wrecking ball to a beautiful old building, and replacing it with, say, the Trump Tower. But what makes it worse for me, is that some people actually want – and celebrate – the Trump Tower.

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NEVER KNOW

Some say money, it gets you high
I say money helps you sleep at night
Who has more
Who decides

Some say time, it pass you by
I say time will testify
To the magic
And the crimes

And I don’t believe
it should ever end like this
We shall walk the earth
And end it with a kiss
They’ll never know

Some say love will make you cry
I say love must make you try
Lets you know
What’s inside

The Lord says truth will set you free
He says love will make you see
Why’re we blind
To these chains

And I don’t believe
it should ever end like this
We shall walk the earth
And end it with a kiss
They’ll never know