Written on May 19, 2020
Gratitude, in some cases, is simple to verbalize. However, it is not easily demonstrable due to its emotional and pragmatic implications. Although that same observation can be made with the topics of love, honesty and almost all other feelings, this piece of writing is built around the word ‘’gratitude’’.
Words and their definitions were passed down to us, and we are fortunate to have the ability to utilize them in various ways. Language is a beautiful gift, just like many other things in life. You may disagree with the following statement; but I suggest that everything we own should be perceived as a gift. That includes our fundamental understanding of the term gratitude and our ability to manifest it. We were taught to say thank you, encouraged to display appreciation, and trained to reciprocate to those who display generosity in our favor. As recipients, it is easy for us to appreciate presents. But it is not innate for humans to be aware of their responsibility towards the issuers of those gifts. Just like several other virtues, gratitude is not an inherited quality. It is generally reinforced by the wise people in our educational environment.
Why do I emphasize the gift part? Because I sense that as we get older, there is an ease with which we stray away from showing genuine gratitude, and it causes us to fall into a dark place…a place where entitlement awaits. And lord knows that entitlement can lead to a pretty nasty behavior. All of this may sound like a long explanation to describe a phenomenon that is pretty obvious in our modern day and age, and I apologize if that is the case. But my objective is to highlight the importance of seeing our emotional and intellectual acquisitions as gifts as opposed to merits, because that is what we tend to do with material goods. Tonight's late-night mental gymnastics is the result of me looking at the irony of us being ungrateful to gratefulness. And that to me, is interesting.
