The Seven Deadly Sins

After a breakup, we may unconsciously dabble in each of the Seven Deadly Sins. Don’t be shocked, it’s not as bad as it sounds! TV, movies, art and books very often contain several of these sins and the ones that don’t, are just not that interesting. Count up the many sins in a TV drama and you might find that it’s the number one show on television.

So, is it because the sins are all around us in the media that we are encouraged to follow suit and to sin ourselves, or did the TV writers see us sinning and say, “Hey, that’s good idea for a TV drama?” Or can we just blame the press, who use our stories to write their scandalous articles that we just can’t get enough of?

 I woke up this morning thinking about my book Breakup Cocktail, and realized that sin is the basis of every good story and forms an integral foundation within it, like the yeast in bread or alcohol in a cocktail. Our sins become the pink in our cheeks and the secret smile on our faces that make others wonder what we have been up to.

We are all guilty of indulging in those sins, pick a sin or two or even all of them, and we’ve done them. Sinning, apparently, doesn’t always make us feel bad and that’s probably because we don’t let it get out of control. If we indulge in our sins infrequently or in smaller doses, that’s acceptable. Even if we binge, these days everything is forgivable unless we hurt someone along the way or do something too bad too often.

So, back to the Seven Deadly Sins. You may have heard of them, but you probably don’t know too much about them unless you have studied religion. Who can name them all? I got as far as 3 out of 7, but here they all are:

Lust
Lust originally meant wanting very badly to have sex with someone and becoming a little obsessed with it in the process, but over time, its meaning expanded and now the definition incorporates an intense desire for anything, as in, “She lusted after the promotion.”

Gluttony
A glutton is a person who eats or drinks too much. A “glutton for punishment,” is someone who takes on a difficult or thankless job, but I think that phrase is a one of kind, as gluttony doesn’t seem to be linked with any other common phrases.

Wrath
“The wrath of God” is a pretty familiar sentence. Wrath means anger and is an old-fashioned word. These days, we don’t have time for extra words so we just use the ones that we already know. With fury, rage, madden, rile, annoy, etc., we don’t need wrath anymore. But apparently it was a sin back then when the list of sins was written.



Pride
These days, having pride is considered a good characteristic. You are proud of yourself, your work, your family and that’s commendable. So how can pride be a sin? In this context it means being vain. It means that you think that you are better than everyone else.

 Envy
Jealousy. Wanting something someone else has, AND, not wanting anyone else to have it.

Greed (Avarice)
We all know what greed means. Everyone’s mother has scolded them for being greedy, but often it is associated with food. Or stealing another child’s toys. But it’s a word we all grew up with. What, your mother never called you greedy? Well aren’t you the perfect one!
Greed is wanting to have masses of possessions, like a lot of money or a horde of Twitter followers. What is the collective name for a lot of Twitter followers? A flock? A gaggle?

Sloth
Laziness, pure and simple. This last sin was added later and replaced Sadness, one of the original sins, but I suppose someone important must have felt sympathetic towards someone sad, so they decided to eliminate it, and decree it sin-free. How considerate...

So, there are The Seven Deadly Sins. They were modernized in the 4th century and originated from religious beliefs, back in the day when morals were important...

...but I think that every one of them rears its head during and after a breakup.

Next time I will tell you how, during your breakup, you might experience all of those Seven Deadly Sins – one for each day of the week.

By the way, I think that they have missed a deadly sin – how about lying? What’s more treacherous than that...?

For funny breakup reads, sample Breakup Cocktail: 5 Parts Humor, 1 Part Healing and a Twist of Revenge© a book by Barbara Kingsley Singer
Click here to take a sip on amazon.com