1. Sco77 Byorum

2. The 7 Pervasive Whims
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The 7 Pervasive Whims
A Free E-Book
By
Scott E. Byorum

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Books by Scott E. Byorum:
The A.M. God (2006)
The 7 Pervasive Whims (2008)
All artwork, graphics, and poetry by Scott Byorum.
Poetry excerpts from The A.M. God, by Trafford
Publishing.
© Copyright 2008 Scott Byorum
All rights reserved. This publication may be freely
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, or printed
only in its entirety. It may not be sold, bartered for, or
otherwise traded for compensation. No part of this
publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
transmitted, or printed outside of its entirety by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the written prior permission of the author. Individual
contributors to this publication may freely reference their
contribution.
Electronic copies available by sending email to
Byorum@netzero.net, subject line: “The 7 Pervasive Whims.”
Thank you for your support and the free exchange of ideas and
knowledge while preserving the integrity of authorship.

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per·va·sive
Pronunciation: pər-ˈvā-siv, -ziv
Function: adjective
Date: circa 1750
Meaning: pervading or tending to pervade <a
pervasive odor>
per·vade
Pronunciation: pər-ˈvād
Function: transitive verb
Inflected Form(s): per·vad·ed; per·vad·ing
Etymology: Latin pervadere to go through
Date: 1659
Meaning: to become diffused throughout every part
of

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whim
Pronunciation: ˈhwim, ˈwim
Function: noun
Etymology: short for whim-wham
Date: 1686
Meaning 1: a capricious or eccentric and often
sudden idea or turn of the mind

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The 7 Pervasive Whims
Preface 8
Introduction 12
Lust 14
Gluttony 22
Greed 30
Sloth 38
Wrath 46
Envy 54
Pride 62
Afterward/Acknowledgements 70
Addendum 73
About the Author 74

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To James Stuart
For reaffirming that many of the best things in life
are free, that life is short, and in 10,000 years this
probably won’t matter.

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Preface
I was really exposed to the full force of human
nature and its ability to create symbols both true and
false (and inbetween) in my early teens. I attended
a Christian summer camp during the summer
between the 7th
and 8th
grade because my best friend
invited me. It was a great time… mostly.
Every evening we would gather in the bleachers of
a great hall before a big stage. A guest Christian
artist would give a lecture while he painted on a
large canvas. At first, you couldn’t make out what
the image was. That was the draw… the fascination.
The point of his lecture reached a crescendo with
the last few strokes of the image as it blossomed
into its full reality. It was really quite a show,
especially for young teens.
Every lecture and painting was about Christianity,
but on day 1 it started soft. By day 7, the message
was hard. But it wasn’t so hard that you were
scared; it was just hard enough to convince you to
believe the word and the symbol. The final image
was a white cross.
After each session, the camp counselors would go
into a side door off the hall as the guest artist would
ask if any of the kids in the bleachers wanted to
accept Jesus Christ as their personal savior. And

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each evening, more and more individuals would
tentatively arise from their benches and make their
way to the room the camp counselors had entered.
My best friend had already made the Christ
commitment long before camp. He never pressured
me into doing the same, but these evening
performances did. Each night I saw kids going off
to a room to accept something that I was told was a
new birthday, a new relationship with our Lord and
Savior.
By the 7th
evening I could bear it no longer. I was
one of a handful of hold-outs that finally rose from
their seats and entered the unknown room ---
needing to gain knowledge; needing to gain
acceptance. Inside, there were pillows on the floor
with a camp counselor and a candle sitting next to
each. We were each shown to a pillow and set to
kneel next to a counselor and a candle. We were
asked to accept Jesus Christ into our hearts as our
personal Lord and Savior… and we accepted. We
had become Born Again.
That evening, back inside the cabin, my camp
counselor gave me my own Bible and selected
several passages in different books “especially
chosen for me.” One of them was Proverbs 6:16-19,
which were the basis for the 4th
century monk
Evagrius Ponticus’s 8 “evil thoughts” --- later
refined to the infamous “7 Deadly Sins” by Pope
Gregory I several years later.

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My parents were appalled at what happened at camp
when I told them on the way home, especially my
mother, who is an Atheist. Over the next several
years I struggled with Christianity and the power of
its symbolism, then with religion in general.
I have done my soul searching over the years and
suffice to say that I am comfortable with being
Agnostic, but only because it is the closest thing
there is to a belief system that accepts the fact that it
doesn’t know and doesn’t think any of the other
religions have the answer either. Atheism has its
draws, but it is as powerful a faith system as any
one religion.
I am fascinated with religion and its various
symbolisms, not because of the spiritual answer
they profess, but because of their power over the
human condition… their ability to influence and
shape humanity’s destiny through symbolism.
Christianity’s “7 Deadly Sins” is one of the most
fascinating of religious tenants, not because of their
consequence to religious faith, but because of their
power and truth in describing the main undesirable
elements of the human condition --- aspects
ingrained in each and every one of us; the ultimate
detrimental factors to our success in life.
The power of my spiritual journey, and of many
others, I surmise, is recorded in my book “The A.M.
God.” One of the underlying themes in the book is
how these 7 very human and undeniable aspects of

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our psyche both subtly and overtly seep their way
into our individual lives: personally, professionally,
socially, and spiritually. At one time or another,
each of us has succumbed to their influence, at
whatever level of power.
They can be overcome, but they cannot be denied;
no more than we can deny our very senses. For if
we try to deny them, then that is when they gain
traction and influence in our lives. No God
punishes us for our indulgence in these sordid
aspects of our nature; we punish ourselves. And if
any Heaven exists, it merely weeps at our
weakness… and smiles at our strength.
Although the premise of this booklet has religious
overtones, it is not intended as a criticism or
comment on any one religion. I respect all faiths,
for as an Agnostic, I do not have the answer either.
What I have intended by collaborating with my
network contacts is to create here a human
examination and commentary of our key
weaknesses, in a way both satirical and serious alike.
For when we can recognize our core weaknesses,
we can draw our strength to reach for success and
meaning in this short and unpredictable life.
~ Scott Byorum
December 12, 2008

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Introduction
Human Nature. Aside from the religious
connotations and overtones, the 7 Deadly Sins are
darkly fascinating aspects of genuine human
characteristics. Nobody is immune. They describe
the sordid aspects of our psyche... aspects we
condemn and yet are guilty of ourselves. Like the
virtues we so extol, our sins define us as well. We
truly are equal.
This free booklet is non-denominational. In fact, it
shies away from religious interpretation,
whatsoever, other than the base origin of the
subject. Sins are often impulsive, hence the re-
designation "whims." And they have weaved their
web throughout time and human
consciousness. Deadly or not, they are "pervasive."
Each of these maligned, enduring human traits is
detrimental to our success as individuals and
community members. They adversely impact the
quality of our personal lives, our professional
performance, our social interactions, and our
spiritual well-being. They capitalize on our human
weakness. To overcome them and realize our
positive human potential, we must recognize their
incarnations.

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In the following pages, real people interpret these
unseemly characteristics of the human condition.
Esoteric, eccentric, existential, satirical, serious…
the people are real… the answers are real. How
would you respond?
 Lust: "You know you are over-stimulated
when..."
 Gluttony: "You know you are self-indulgent
when..."
 Greed: "You know you are greedy when..."
 Sloth: "You know you are lazy when..."
 Wrath: "You know you are vindictive
when..."
 Envy: "You know you are jealous when..."
 Pride: "You know you are self-absorbed
when..."

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Lust
Latin: Luxuria
Alt.: Lechery
I see black hair pouring
past her shoulders
Spilling down her
backside
Arms dancing upwards
flowing
Heat smoldering forwards
from my eyes
Young supple slender
body slinking
White lace floating
clinging closely
Fire blazing between
thighs

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You know you are over-stimulated when you
cannot redirect yourself towards another activity.

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You know you are over-stimulated when you click
on your last link online and a message says:
"You are finished. That’s it! You are all done with
the web. There are no more unread links to click!"

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You know you are over-stimulated when you get
excited about the word and just keep typing.

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You know you are over-stimulated when you keep
seeing your company logo over the head of your
lover while making sex at night.

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You know you are over-stimulated when you can’t
get your brain and your hands to sync up enough to
type coherently.

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You know you are over-stimulated when you
cannot wait and pull out too soon and crash at a
road junction.

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You know you are over-stimulated when you
realize it’s 3 AM, you are wide awake, you feel like
you’ve been working all day, and then you realize
that all you have done is browse blogs and social
media sites.

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Gluttony
Latin: Gula
Alt.: Over-consumption
A feasting banquet laid out before just one
Choice morsels calling calling calling
Tongue slathering teeth
Moisture seething free
What they’re eating mine mine is feeding feeding
more in me
Throat moving squeezing choking pushing down
Stomach churning colon working and free

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You know you are self-indulgent when you look at
your credit card bill.

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You know you are self-indulgent when you want to
answer really big questions beyond your vocabulary.

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You know you are self-indulgent when all you can
think about is what you want next to increase you
pleasure.

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You know you are self-indulgent when you
complain in a tiny whine that the champagne in
which your feet are soaking for your weekly
pedicure is of an inferior vintage to the champagne
you have been served.

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You know you are self-indulgent when you stop to
fill up your vehicle with gasoline and you also buy
two bags of potato chips as a snack, when in reality
you should be having none at all.

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You know you are self-indulgent when you spend a
trillion dollars on your private little war.

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You know you are self-indulgent when you eat a
fabulous dinner and then decide to order a piece of
cheesecake to go for later. But as soon as you get in
the car, you start nibbling on the cheesecake (with
your fingers) and even though you are too full you
eat the entire thing before you get home.

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Greed
Latin: Avaritia
Alt.: Avarice,
Covetousness
What I have is less
than what I want
What I want is to
have more of what I
have
And when I gather
what I hunt
It’s not near enough
What I need I want
more for what I have
I keep it in my pillow
But I don’t sleep like
I want

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You know you are greedy when you can’t ever
seem to spare money for a charity or donation
collection jar, you don’t seem to have a moment
ever to volunteer, and yet, if the collection drive or
the volunteer cause was for you, you would expect
everyone to come clamoring to help.

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You know you are greedy when you argue that the
grocery store should accept your expired coupon.

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You know you are greedy when you will abandon
all values and consideration of others to make more
money than you can ever spend.

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You know you are greedy when you ask the
waitress at a restaurant to bring you a take home
bag for some leftovers and then you end up putting
in all the sugar packets, leftover basket of bread
rolls, jelly packets, butter, and creamers.

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You know you are greedy when you are willing to
make a dollar off the misery of others.

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You know you are greedy when you can’t seem to
do anything for someone else, without a price tag
attached to it.

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You know you are greedy when you want to make a
killing, not just a living

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Sloth
Latin: Acedia
Alt.: Laziness, Despair
Sleep passes through the night into the day
Day to night to day world turning
Afternoon tomorrow floating through the rain
Sun comes up goes down comes up in time
Noises flutter busy noises talking noisy trill
Actions pass me by
I am still

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You know you are lazy when you ask all your
networking contacts to come up with content for
your next book.

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You know you are lazy when you don’t take a
shower for a week.

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You know you are lazy you use the sink in the
kitchen, rather than go upstairs to the bathroom.

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You know you are lazy when you consistently fail
to do what you are good at doing.

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You know you are lazy when you don’t even bother
asking someone else to use the remote to change the
TV channel you are not enjoying.

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You know you are lazy when you become notorious
for saying: “while you are up...”

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You know you are lazy when, eh...

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WRATH
Latin: Ira
Alt.: Anger, Rage
I feel the weight chill shiny tool within my hand
Tool to work the red blur within my mind
Tool thrusting forward
Finger squeezing inward
Terror in their eyes
Now they are running pleading screaming
Feel the power that is blind

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You know you are vindictive when you can’t help
tea-bagging fools on Halo 3.

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You know you are vindictive when you start a viral
campaign to destroy someone’s reputation.

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You know you are vindictive when you gather all of
those cards for magazine subscriptions from every
magazine you can find until you have a stack of 50
or so. Then you put the name of the individual you
are seeking revenge on and their work mailing
address on half of the cards and their home mailing
address on the other half. Always choose the
magazines that will cause the most discomfort
and/or need for explanation for them. All they have
to do is cancel each and every subscription when
the invoices start showing up, but in the meantime
the sweet joy of watching them try to
understand/explain why they are receiving so many
magazines and the type of magazines they are
receiving... is priceless.

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You know you are vindictive when you vanquish
your enemies and drive them before you, deprive
them of their wealth, and see their dearest ones
awash in tears, while riding their horses while
clasping to your bosom their wives and their
daughters.

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You know you are vindictive when you are pleased
by the concept of comeuppance.

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You know you are vindictive when you go all out of
your way to fight someone who you know is weaker
than you.

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You know you are vindictive when you run a key
along the side of someone’s car because he made a
joke at your expense.

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Envy
Latin: Invidia
Alt.: Jealousy*
I see these things and what you have
Where you’re at what you do who you are is better than me
I see these things through senses full
Smelling touching tasting hearing feeling knowing
Who you are
I want them in me on me for me now
I want what you have

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You know you are jealous when you turn on the
rich and the beautiful.

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You know you are jealous when you storm out of a
bar on Christmas Eve.

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You know you are jealous when you say something
self-protecting and brilliantly catty, but feel sick
inside.

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You know you are jealous when you see her with
another guy just after you broke up and you deck
him

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You know you are jealous when you flush the toilet
while someone else is taking a shower. Then the
hot water turns cold and you say: “Hey what
happened to all the hot water?”

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You know you are jealous when you text your
daughter’s friends inviting them over for pizza and
soda and then mention that it’s not important that
your daughter won’t be there.

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You know you are jealous when you’re not happy
when good things happen to your friends.

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PRIDE
Latin: Superbia
Alt.: Hubris, Vanity
Fired filament flaring
burning bright
Flowing blossomed light
speeding swiftly to the
eye
Gaze reflection in the
silvered glass shines fine
Back and forth light
bouncing bouncing
bouncing by
Image feeds my sight
into my mind
Me wanting more of me
and mine
Echoes echoes through
the heart

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You know you are self-absorbed when you shout
out your own name while masturbating.

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You know you are self-absorbed when every
thought in your mind starts with “I” and every
conversation with friends and associates starts with
“I”.

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You know you are self-absorbed when the only
interesting (and funny) answer to a question is yours.

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You know you are self-absorbed when you Google
yourself and become angry when some other person
with your name is ranked higher.

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You know you are self-absorbed when you can’t
pass by a window or mirror without looking at your
reflection.

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You know you are self-absorbed when you see
someone having a bad day and ask what is wrong
and then turn their misery into a story about
yourself.

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You know you are self-absorbed when you stop
talking and look up and nobody is there.

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Afterwards/Acknowledgements
Like all great intentions, this project started off
seeming easier than it really was. After going
through the ordeal of producing my first book, The
A.M. God, I thought that this would be relatively
simple by comparison. It wasn’t.
It isn’t the writing. After over 20 years of practice,
writing comes pretty naturally for me… as long as
the ideas are there. And research… well, that has
been my bread and butter in my day job for the last
13 years and it has led to several writing projects.
The research for this was already done with the
publication of The A.M. God.
It was partly the art and the formatting, some of
which was partially done and some of which needed
to be created. But again, I’m skilled in this. There
was nothing I really needed to learn or spend a lot
of time creating to produce this publication.
So what made this publication difficult? I mean, I
had a few hundred freely submitted answers from
my networking connections to create the content.
Therein lies the answer: so many of the submissions
were just so damn good.
It was very difficult to pare down the selections to
just 7 for each of the 7 sins… um, I mean “whims.”
I would have loved to include every answer, but

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then the publication would lose character, muddle
its point. There were valuable network connections
that I so wanted to include, and others who I hardly
knew that I couldn’t help but to include. And there
were still others whose answers were so relevant
that I included multiple times. It was that very
selection process that made this project difficult.
Words are cheap and free on the internet (yes, there
is a difference), as they are in life. But words that
are carefully selected, and channeled into a purpose,
into a publication, take on a value of their own.
Sometimes they are worth paying for… and
sometimes paying for them cheapens them.
This publication is a gift. Sure I may sell a few
more copies of my books or get some name
recognition, but that won’t compensate the time I
put into this publication. Religion aside, the
elements presented here, based on The 7 Deadly
Sins, are real human psychological manifestations
that detrimentally affect peoples’ lives and success.
They are our weakness, and as any successful
person knows: if you cannot identify and address
your weaknesses, then you will be a slave to them
and end in ruin.
The following talented individuals contributed to
the content of this publication: Adam Hyatt.
Adeyemi Fowe, Alison Diefenderfer, Bob Garrett,
Cher Wada, Dania Roker, David West, Dmitry
Polonsky, Frank Feather, Gerald Lo, Greg Poulas,
James M. Koenig, Jan Simpson, Jenna Papakalos,

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Jerry Richardson, Joy Fletcher Montgomery,
Katherine Howard, Ken Rochon, Kevin Harville,
Kevin Horst, Lee Schlesinger, Neil Jones, Peggy
Brockmann, Phil Lidster, Ravinder Bhan, Ray
Miller, Ronald Berg, Sam Brannon, Sheilah
Etheridge, Simon Hamer, Susan Shwartz, Taryn
Pisaneschi, Teresa Fields, and the incomparable
Tim Tymchyshyn.
Thank you all for contributing to my success and I
hope your contributions contribute to the success of
others, as well as yourselves.

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Addendum*
A question arose in my mind when posing the
questions to my networking contacts as to whether
or not to use the actual names of The 7 Deadly Sins.
For the sake of keeping this publication on a secular
level, I used synonyms in place of the real words
where I could (i.e. “self-absorbed” instead of
“Pride”, etc.). I have to give credit to one person
who called me on my term substitution: Frank
Feather.
In addition to his answer to “You know you are
jealous when…” he wisely observed and added:
“Jealousy should not be confused with envy:
jealousy concerns something you have, but are
afraid to lose. Envy can be non-malicious
(something you don’t have but want to acquire) or
malicious (wanting others not to have something).
Thus, for example, Othello is jealous at the thought
he might lose Desdemona, while Iago is envious of
Othello’s prestige or status. Jealousy comes from
the French "jalousie" or "jaloux" (jealous), also the
Latin "zelosus" (full of zeal), and the Greek "zelos"
(sometimes meaning jealousy but more often
meaning "emulation, ardor, zeal" -- and the latter
can have a positive connotation.”
The best laid plans, Frank… the best laid plans. =0)

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About the Author
Scott Byorum was born November 9, 1968 in
Petaluma, CA. He currently resides in Windsor,
CA with his wife Shandell and their pets. Scott has
a BA in Psychology from Sonoma State University
and certificates in Training and Instructional Design.
He has always been interested and involved in art,
writing, and music.
Scott has over 20 years experience in management
and the business world. He has expertise in
business development, process analysis and control,
procedure documentation, and skills training. He is
author to numerous articles on training and
leadership for bank management and directors.