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January 1, 2006
Rank your Seven Deadly Sins!
What better way to start the New Year than by obsessing over your flaws?
Though not as popular as karma or hell, the Seven Deadly Sins have gone from being specific to a religion to common thought. There are the Seven Sins of Deadly Meetings and the Seven Deadly Sins of Applying to Graduate Programs in Social Work. Even Gandhi made his own thought provoking, list of deadly sins.
But the original seven have their very own website.
According to the site’s history, Pope Gregory the Great ranked the seven deadlies in the following descending order of seriousness:
- Pride
- Envy
- Anger
- Sadness
- Avarice
- Gluttony
- Lust.
In the 17th century sadness was replaced by sloth.
Evidently, Pope Gregory knew me well. Here’s my own personal list of seven deadlies, ranked in the order that each of them is my special pal:
- Envy
- Pride
- Anger
- Sloth
- Lust
- Gluttony
- Avarice
Not far off his list. I don’t know if Gregory would agree, but I think of the first trio and the last quartet as subgroups within the sins and he also has the trio ahead of the quartet. I hold a twisted little place in my heart for envy, which for me has always lived up to its reputation as the green-eyed monster. We’re old friends.
So now, dear reader, it’s time to play along! Rank your sins and feel free to list them in the comments. And while you’re nursing your hangover, here’s a list of virtues to counteract your sins. Temperance is number six.
Posted by Leigh Witchel at January 1, 2006 12:45 PM
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Comments
Oh, now wait just one tiny little itty-bitty teeny-weeny MINUTE!
Envy and jealousy are NOT the same, although people very sloppily use "jealous" when they mean "envious."
I rant here because you reference the green-eyed monster, which links quite appropriately to jealousy, in a paragraph discussing envy.
Envy is what you feel about THINGS that you want.
Jealousy is what feel about PEOPLE you want.
"I am jealous of my boyfriend because he flirts with my friends."
"I envy my friend because she has a great job."
Don't be mixin' them up!
Posted by: Grace at January 5, 2006 11:51 PM