The Claimed
Self-directed elevation. The self enlarged by what it made, and willing to stand next to it. Shame conceals the person, guilt concerns the act, and pride asks for a witness.
Late Old English prud, usually traced to Old French prud, valiant, the root that also gives prowess. The church filed its excess under superbia, first of the seven deadly sins, and the word has carried that suspicion since. Psychology now splits it in two: pride in what one did, which builds, and pride in what one is, which corrodes.
Height, literally: the spine lengthens, the chin lifts, the chest opens, and the posture is the same everywhere it has been studied. There is an urge toward a witness, someone to stand next to the thing made. The mind revisits the accomplishment the way a tongue revisits a new tooth. Left unfed it fades in days; fed, it asks again.
Shame is its negative image: the self shrunk by what it did, hiding from the witness pride invites. Admiration is the same elevation aimed at someone else; pride keeps the elevation for its own account.
A figure and the thing it made, both fully lit, neither deferring to the other. The work is placed inside the frame instead of implied outside it.
∞
Pride leads, and the title is the claim: to become worth destroying. We became stars, just bright enough to justify the fire. The self enlarged by what it made.