Pride: A plastic-covered couch

Pride is like the plastic coverings grandmothers used to zip around their couches: It makes you uncomfortable, unattractive and no one wants to get too close (at least for long).

The plastic was developed to protect the couch from harm (it does). But no one wanted to sit on it. It makes a creepy noise and doesn’t feel right. And don’t even think about lying on a plastic-covered couch.

Humbling rips away the plastic: the “authentic’’ real and true person you were created to be is revealed and people say “wow.’’

A great story (fiction or nonfiction) rings true. A fake story (and a phony person) is like that plastic covered couch, a little too hard to believe in.

In a thousand films, we see a similar variation when someone removes glasses, lets down hair and the audience gasps as a caterpillar becomes a butterfly.