pride

"He knew he had to go down. Don't you understand that? There was never any question about who would make the sacrifice ... He accepted it as destiny. This was not your sin, Proud Chauntecleer; and if you keep saying that it is, you protect yourself against the greater. You are blinding yourself. Penance for what else?"

"Pertelote," Chauntecleer said. "Stop."

"Say it!"

"I can't."

"You know it?"

"Yes."

"Then say it!"

..."I despised him," Chauntecleer said.

"So," said Pertelote. "This was your wickedness."

"He was making ready to die for us, and I didn't understand that. I judged him a traitor. I made his last moments lonely, and I despised him."

******
This, from The Book of the Dun Cow. It left me crying and nauseous. You had to be there, but, it was weighty. The section above especially left Isaiah 53 running through my head.

I have an odd weakness in occasionally being too proud to accept book recommendations. Okay, well, not occasionally -- it happens nearly every time one is recommended. Who knows why I assume the book could not really be that good if I didn't already know about it. (Does your own vanity ever shock you?) Looking back, most of my favorite books were recommendations at one point. There sits here an entire bookcase of examples of that vanity shot down.