Nemesis

I've been using the term "nemesis" incorrectly. There is an entire mythology about this term, particularly if it's capitalized. Nemesis was a Greek goddess. Wouldn't you know it. A female goddess with a long history even before she became Greek. She goes back a long way. Here is an interesting link that lays out the whole deal.

http://thanasis.com/modern/nemesis.htm

This makes a lot more sense to me. Women have always been my nemesis. No man I've ever encountered could compete with the women that have come into my life as far as exacting punishment for my hubris is concerned.

This article and myth substantiates the quote I use from Alexander Pope, "Modesty is the art of power." The I Ching has an entire Hexagram called Modesty. It's renown for not having any oracle lines that indicate misfortune.

It took me a long time to understand how this principle works. If, indeed I do. It's been taught to me from childhood in one form or the other. I guess I was in my forties before I understood that it was responsible for many, if not most of my misfortunes. In some of the Asian religions it's called karma.

The older I get the more I realize that my misfortunes have been self contained. I set my own self up for the fall. My ulterior motives were not a secret from that part of me that administers judgment of this nature. The payoff for me has been humiliation. Humiliation through and through. I learned how to be humble by being humiliated. There's gotta be a better way. Behaving in such a way that brings humiliation in it's train got to be too expensive a burden to bear.

Here's another link with a well-organized presentation. It's even got the same picture of Nemesis on it.

http://www.theoi.com/Daimon/Nemesis.html