The Confession Box: 2019
Pride, wrath and gluttony lead the charge among the seven deadly sins. reflects on the year of hearing confessions.
Bless our prideful little hearts. When a selection of prominent New Zealanders were given the opportunity to confess their sins to the nation this year, they most often chose pride. Some of them were proud just to have been selected.
Speaking in terms of the Seven Deadly Sins, as we have (loosely) for this column, pride is the original sin: a corrupt, vicious, overpowering selfishness that leads you to believe you are more important than others. It is a Trumpian sin you would not wish on anyone, not even Trump.
But most people understand pride to be warm satisfaction in their achievements and, for the performers and artists we spoke to, that was generally seen as a positive. Some argued against it being a sin at all.
Anti-violence campaigner Richie Hardcore chose pride because, he said, “This is the first time in my life that I am comfortable with myself.”
Artist Dick Frizzell said, “I
Iike to come into the studio at night and turn on the light all of a sudden and look at it and go,
‘Wow, did I do that?’”
Comedian Laura Daniel said she was most proud of her relationship with her partner Joseph Moore. “It was a classic New Zealand meeting. We had a one-night-stand and it did not work out but then we became friends after that and then we were workmates. It wasn’t meant to be at the time but it was meant to be in the end.”
Bishop of Auckland Patrick Dunn, who understands the sins better than most, spoke about battling his pride as health issues have forced him to accept help. “As we get older, we realise more and more clearly that we desperately need the support and the friendship and the love of others; and that is one antidote for the seeds of pride that can fester away in our hearts.”
Gluttony was the other
“favourite” sin, well ahead of wrath, sloth, envy, lust and greed. Rima Te Wiata loses her mind over freshly baked date scones. James Nokise scours cities around the world for the best cakes. Guy Williams says sugar is his heroin.
Nigel Latta chose gluttony so he could talk about his binge telly habit, not food. “Food’s a nuisance,” he said. “If you could take a pill instead of eating, that would be great. I mean I cook but I don’t like cooking. The thing about food — again, this is the sloth in me — you go to all that trouble, you chop stuff up and you cook it. You prepare it and you do all this stuff for basically the first three-and-a-half to four centimetres of food’s journey, just as it’s travelling through your mouth.”
Author Joy Cowley’s top sin was ignorance, which is not one of the Deadly Seven but arguably should be, given all the trouble it causes. “I think ignorance — a failure to understand others, a failure to be wellinformed — causes so many of the world’s problems,” she said. “At one time innocence was thought to be a virtue but another name for that is ‘ignorance’ and I would call that a sin.”
Confession Box has been a frolic, a marvellous excuse for interviewing interesting folk. We have talked about baked goods and corsets and thousand-dollar sneakers; excessive plastic consumption and babies, decrepitude and death. And it has been a laugh. Except for the chats about death and debt, which were actually my favourites.
“I want to want less,” said journalist Mihingarangi Forbes. “When you’re wealthy enough to have basically everything you need, the hardest trick is not
Clockwise from above left: Richie Hardcore, Dick Frizzell, Laura Daniel, Marlon Williams, Joy Cowley and Rima Te Wiata. wanting to want. We live in a country where we have accepted that the wealthiest 1 per cent owns 20 per cent of our assets. We celebrate economic progress but the equation is so flawed.”
Director Alexander Gandar said, “I remember exactly where I was and what was happening when I [realised that everyone dies] and I don’t think that feeling has ever disappeared. I am actually kind of excited about the experience of death, but the idea of infinity is frightening. Even talking about it makes me feel panicky.”
Singer Marlon Williams said, “Sloth is the most interesting sin because it’s the only sin that is a sin by omission.
“It’s the most slippery of all the vices. People relate it to depression but I feel like depression is an active thing while sloth is a complete absence of the will to live.”
To end on a more joyful note, we turn to David Downs, who wrote a book about surviving Non-hodgkin lymphoma. “We should relish the fact that we can walk around and talk to each other and eat nice food,” he said. “The cliche is true, you realise every opportunity you have is really precious and you should make the most of it.”