If someone were to produce a word count of one of the most overused words in our language today, I imagine that the word “pride” would come very near to winning the contest.
“Pride” is our zeitgeist word: it’s the spirit of the age. We’re constantly told how “proud” we should be about every aspect of our lives.
When the Duchess of Sussex, as Meghan Markle, spoke at the United Nations, she declared: “I’m proud to be a woman and a feminist.” But being a woman is, in the majority of cases, a biological fact decided at our conception by the miraculous fusion of genes and chromosomes. Why should we be “proud” of something that simply occurs in the course of nature?
“Grey pride” instructs us to be proud of being old. But as Dame Joan Collins so memorably exclaimed about ageing, “it’s better than the alternative”.
I’d suggest we should be grateful to grow old, rather than being “proud” of the date on our birth certificate.
“Gay pride” has taken centre stage in this universal inclination to pride in circumstances. It was inspired by a predecessor, “black pride” – both arising from protests against injustice and discrimination which black people and homosexuals have suffered in the past.
The gay pride marches are now a worldwide phenomenon in the summer months, perhaps replacing the more traditional fiestas or harlequinades of yore, when people dressed up in outlandish costumes for celebration and theatrical display. It has also become highly commercialised, with big brands using the opportunity of marketing their products.
Yet, isn’t sexuality also simply an element of life – a given, which is part of every species? Does that mean everyone should be “proud” of their sexual orientation?
Shouldn’t “pride”, where justifiable, be linked to some form of achievement? And isn’t it better expressed by someone else, rather than the subjective person proclaiming it? As, for example, when Serena Williams’s husband said he was proud of her valiant tennis game at Wimbledon.
Yet, in other circumstances, the achievement in question may seem dubious to others. The actress Saoirse Ronan said she was “proud” that Ireland had voted to delete the eighth amendment from its constitution. But a third of Irish voters were crestfallen that the rights of the unborn had been extinguished.
Everyone is entitled to respect, and indeed self-respect is a good aspiration. But this ubiquitous exaltation of the concept of “pride”? Doesn’t pride come before a fall?
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Anyone who has ever been accused of being untidy might take some comfort from visiting one of Dublin’s artistic venues – as the studio of the late painter Francis Bacon has been meticulously (if that is the right word) reassembled at Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane (formerly the Municipal Art Gallery). It was transported there piece by piece from its original location in South Kensington. Bacon was born in Dublin and his heir bestowed his entire studio to the city’s gallery.
It is surely the messiest, untidiest and even filthiest studio ever seen. The chaos is beyond my powers of description, with jumble and clutter everywhere – cardboard boxes, old newspapers, endless pots of paints and brushes, rags, bundles, utensils and various accumulated junk. An empty easel sits in the middle of it all, awaiting the dead master.
Bacon’s words adorn the introductory gallery space: “I work much better in chaos … I cannot work in places that are too tidy. It’s much easier for me to paint in a place like this which is a mess. I don’t know why but it helps me.”
I wish I had had that answer available when scolded at my convent school that “no one is naturally untidy”. Bacon, who died in 1992, and whose paintings, particularly of popes, are worth a fortune, certainly was.
Observers noticed a white, ring-shaped object on Theresa May’s bare arm as she stood next to President Trump during last week’s visit. It took a doctor to inform me that this is to facilitate the insulin jabs she needs, as a diabetic. Diabetics can get low on blood sugar when their energy is being drained; I imagine the President’s visit did make some quite strong demands on the Prime Minister’s energy levels.
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