Repentance

No matter how angelic we may be or have become, we still have in us something hideously amiss. We are amused when we see it in small children, offended when we see it in adults, and devastated when we discover it in ourselves, in those too-infrequent, blessed moments of self awareness.

THAT is mostly why we repent, not because of this or that we have done or failed to do, but because of the monster we see in ourselves, which we have become with our own consent, this pathetic, misshapen, never-satisfied, fire-breathing thing.

If we've never noticed the dragon within, we do not yet know ourselves. Once we do see it, we either throw in our lot with it, or declare war against it. This all-out war is what repentance is.

And once we begin to repent - an activity that will consume the rest of our lives - we shall have little time or interest to waste being annoyed because of the dragon in anybody else.