People often dispute
whether or not humility
is even a virtue,
feeling that
pretending you are worse
than others is a type
of fatuous dishonesty.
But humility isn't about
being below others,
it is about being below
the ideal standard, realizing
we all have much to learn
and that we can learn
from anyone.
Inherent in the view that
humility is dishonesty
is the view that
life is a sort of competition,
where the only contestants are
whoever else is in the room.
But being humble means taking
a wider view:
that the person you are and
the ideal person you could be
still don't coincide:
it's not false modesty, it's
honest endeavor.
Without humility,
it's virtually impossible
to be attentive --
we are too busy thinking
about what we
will say next.
