Genie
In a brisk piece, Nicola Shulman reflects on ‘the overcompensating sense of self-importance that flourishes in the dark of self-doubt’, a sense likely to erupt ‘with all the towering egotism and sweet relief that a genie might feel after a thousand years in a small brass receptacle’ when some perceived slight rubs the lamp.
It is useful, then, to pay due attention to the surging of pride within us.
It may potentially point the way towards a wound that needs anointing and could be healed, if we’d let it be.
By intercepting the genie we might also, quite simply, prevent ourselves from being silly.
