On the subject of Humility Part 2

The recent events of my father's death have made me reconsider the subject of humility. How arrogant of the human species to believe ourselves superior to nature and yet, death is inevitable and we cannot do anything against it - neither can we abate other forces of nature (hurricanes, earthquakes...)
On a more mundane level, how we approach our fellow human beings is a matter of special consideration. I saw my brother last week show a complete lack of humility when dealing with people at the funeral and it reminded me of how Benjamin Franklin approached the subject. You see, Ben Franklin was not an aristocrat; he was a tradesman, a man of the people, used to hard manual labor. He started working at 12 as an apprentice at his brother's printing shop and from those humble beginnings he rose to world class diplomat, inventor extraordinary and statesman. He, however, felt he did not quite fit in with the rest of the aristocracy he frequented in the last half of his life and made a list of the virtues a gentleman should have.
The list itself is worthy of serious consideration, as is Franklin's method to practice the virtues. As he was told that he sometimes came across as too pedantic and arrogant, he added humility to his list of "gentlemanly virtues". In his words, while he did not think he ever achieved the virtue itself, he made a passable impression of it (which, to me, is a sign he did become humble).
Humility is the one virtue that you lose the moment you realize you have gained it. It is an elusive shadow of a virtue but one worth pursuing, for it greatly helps to allay the roadblocks in the difficult landscape of interpersonal relationships

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