Principles, Parenting & Purpose

Humility Is Inevitable

November 20, 2020

Considering the human condition, a friend quoted Mike Tyson, saying “If you’re not humble, life will visit humbleness upon you.” He concluded:

“What is inevitable?

Death. Taxes. Humility. Problems.”

True, humility is inevitable—but that doesn’t mean we must resist its lessons. At what point will we finally learn?

After my divorce in 2001, I encountered artwork created by my mother’s father, inscribed with a devotion titled “Humility” (included in Arthur Bennett's collection The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions):

Humility is perpetual quietness of heart. It is to have no trouble. It is never to be fretted or vexed, irritable or sore, to wonder at nothing that is done to me, to feel nothing done against me. It is to be at rest when nobody praises me, and when I am blamed or despised; it is to have a blessed home in myself where I can go in and shut the door and kneel to my father in secret and be at peace, as in a deep sea of calmness, when all around and about is trouble.

It crystallized lessons I had been grappling with and became a ongoing reminder of the work that still lay ahead.

Art and science alike reveal another recurring theme: humanity’s endless quest to extend life. Wrapped in noble intentions, this pursuit often masks the ultimate failure of humility. At its core, it is an attempt to evade the inevitable—death—and the forced humility that comes with that end.

But what if we embraced humility before that final moment? What if learning to live humbly could make death less terrifying and more a natural part of life? Ezekiel J. Emanuel’s provocative essay, Why I Hope to Die at 75, offers a terrifically reasoned counterpoint. He challenges us to consider: if 75 feels too young, what is the right number?

Confronting our mortality is inevitable. Yet, in American culture, we procrastinate. Even in their twilight years, many avoid the essential conversations with loved ones about death. We sidestep the topic because we’ve never learned how to talk to it.

Humility invites us to confront these truths—not to despair, but to move forward courageously. Learn to laugh in the face of death. And then, with humility, learn to talk about it.

Death, taxes, humility, and problems may be inevitable. But procrastination of our response to each of them is a choice. Choose wisely.