1938

Anyone who knows me knows that I love comic books. I find it a medium of entertainment that is still light years ahead of books and movies. And most people know that I love Superman comics as well. Superman has always been one of my favorite superheroes, yet for as much as I love Superman I find Superman's arch nemesis Lex Luthor just as fascinating.

Here is a guy who is easily one of the smartest people on earth and yet he always gets beat by Superman and not because Superman is more powerful but because Luthor has a fatal flaw and that flaw is pride.

What's interesting about Luthor is that it doesn't matter how smart he is or how clever is plan for world domination is. His pride is always the thing that trumps his smarts...every single time.

Pride is so easy to see in others and so hard to see in ourselves. If I'm really honest I can see that there are a staggering number of mistakes I've made that I would not have made if I just would not have been so prideful.

What is it in us that pulls the other way? What is it in us that knows we should react one way but so badly want to react the other? Isn't "getting even" the first thing that pops into our heads when someone wrongs us, Even if getting even hurts us further?

Are all of us mini Luthor's with our own issues with pride? Maybe. I think exposing the pride and owning up to it are the first steps to dealing with it. I know people who can't work for anyone but themselves because their pride gets in the way. I know people who have gotten a divorce because someone in the relationship just couldn't be wrong ever.

I deal with it every day, not just in others but myself. It's an on going battle that doesn't seem to end. Like a comic book, that keeps going with the same Characters, fighting the same battles.