Little Nuggets of Pride

It would be a sin to ignore them

Yesterday in Savannah, Georgia, I had a second-row seat to the nation's second largest St Patrick’s Day Parade.¹ This is the 200th anniversary celebration of a parade which started in 1824.

The sun was shining, the sky blue. We had sunscreen, snacks, fizzy water, and a place to pee. In other words, a perfect kind of day. 

Savannah and the surrounding area is home to several military bases. Soldiers and vets make up a portion of the parade. Most of these groups march in formation. One of the veterans’ groups towed a handmade re-creation of the Iwo Jima memorial. The shaped and painted plywood structure perched atop a mountain of wood and netting to capture the feel of the real thing.

I don’t have any pictures of the actual float because it was so bright I couldn’t see my screen, which was flipped on front-facing camera, so I accidentally took pictures of my face all day.

My friend Katy leaned in to me and declared earnestly, “Somebody’s really proud of themself for making that.”

wait…whut?

Detonate brain epiphany.

She wasn’t judging the aesthetics of the piece or the skill involved. She didn't say if she liked it or not. Instead, she admired and honored the feeling it inspired for the creator. It was so clear that  someone invested themselves in making the best parade float they could. And Katy was looking at it with eyes to see this effort and intention. 

I strapped those glasses on, viewing the rest of the parade through the lens of what’s been done with pride. I noticed what might otherwise have escaped me or I’d have glanced over; not what people did as much as the spirit in which they did it. I searched for little accomplishments that I could tell people were very proud of, from signs or floats to outfits or a rainbow fruit platter.  Lucky me, there were roughly 300 entrants and four hours of parade for this exercise.

Seeking out little nuggets of pride isn’t a parade thing, it’s an everyday activity.

I’m not talking about giant masterpieces. I mean the little things. It’s a finely executed spreadsheet, a well-written app or restaurant review, dispensing the exact amount of ketchup for the fries. It can be making the perfect cup of tea or bringing an orchid back to life. There is a certain spot at my local grocery store that on two occasions I’ve managed to u-turn precisely into. 

These accomplishments spark pride in us. 

This pride is a deep feeling of pleasure or satisfaction that springs from our own efforts and achievements. 

You can clearly see this artist has so much pride in her work.

I had such a fun time watching the grill chef at the Yale-St Raphael's hospital cafeteria. I love beholding someone who is really good at and enjoys what they do. He expertly scraped and flipped and cut and chopped meat on the sizzling surface with lyrical choreography. His pride in his work showed. I could taste the love in that grilled cheese sandwich. No joke, loveless grilled cheese sandwiches suck. 

We get so much half-assed crap.  People, and especially corporations, don’t give a shit. I’m not even going to drag us down with examples. We know. We experience it all the time.

But the truth is, if we start to open our eyes to it² there are so very many situations where people have done something small of which they are proud but goes largely unnoticed or taken for granted. 

• The grocery cashier with amazing eyeshadow. She is proud of that.

• A TikTok video of a socially anxious woman hyping herself up to make a phone order from room service. I’m proud of and for her.

• Knowing the answer on Jeopardy. (Please acknowledge my genius.)

• That feeling when the house is clean or ALL of the laundry is done. A brief moment of pride in your labor.

• When your friend is named in a glowing review on Google. I’m proud of and for her.

• The random stranger who parallel parks on her first try. I am in awe and I tell her.

I want to cultivate  an awareness of little things in daily life that others do that I imagine they are proud of. Not win-a-trophy proud, but I-did-my-very-best-and-put-my-heart-into-this-and-I-am-pleased-with-myself-even-if-no-one-else-notices. 

This isn’t sinful pride, this is powerful spark of joy pride.

We see and celebrate this joyful pride in children, whether we know them or not—when they get new sneakers, when they learn something new or  level-up their skills.

We grown-ups need that energy.

I’m proposing a simple 2ish part-plan to apply to ourselves and others:

1. Keep a careful eye out for bite-sized moments or actions that show pride (yours or theirs).

2. Acknowledge these nuggies however is comfortable for you.

3. Recognize how that makes you feel.

4. Repeat as often as you can.

Also, bragging has a bad rap. Share your wee nuggies of pride in the comments. I’ll start.

Thanks for reading.

1. To put things in perspective: the 2nd biggest St Pat’s Parade is in the 186th largest city in the US.

2. Remember frequency illusion?