The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things

Hieronymus Bosch, The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things, oil on wood panels, 1485.

In the past when my friends have told me I have road rage, I would politely laugh at their comment and push it away. There’s no way that I have road rage, or rage of any kind for that matter. Really, me? Sweet innocent ole’ me? But. Slowly I am beginning to realize, they may have been touching at the truth. I am not a violent person. I do not seek out objects to shoot, or launch or destroy, but a few years ago, sitting in traffic on the middle of a beautiful afternoon, I turned to my passenger and revealed this: I wish I had a rocket launcher to blow up all these cars and get them out of my way. Wrath, my first deadly sin.

Every day I ask myself, is there something more? Greed, my second deadly sin.

I have 36 bottles of wine in my apartment. Eleven of which are open. Seven of which I have tasted. All of which were free. Gluttony, my third deadly sin.

On most mornings I ride the bus to work. It picks me up at the entrance of my apartment complex, approximately three tenths of a mile from my front door. It drops me off 20 feet from the door of work. My first week of riding the bus, I walked out of my front door, to my car. I got in my car, turned it on and drove less than a minute. Parked. Got out and boarded the bus. Sloth, my fourth deadly sin.

Every day I look in the mirror and say: I wish I had a different life. Envy, my fifth sin.

There has not been a man I do not find attractive in his own form. There has been few men that I have not been able to resist. There has been one that occupies my mind. There has been none that can fill my desire. Lust, my sixth sin.

I lie to get others to see me. Pride, my last sin.

The four last things (death, judgement, hell, glory) I live each day.