Thanksgiving 2019: What Ever Happened To Gratitude?
Thanksgiving 2019: What Ever Happened To Gratitude?
This is a revised and updated version of an essay that I originally posted last Thanksgiving.
I’ve heard it said that the surest way to achieve happiness in one’s life is to make a habit of stopping for a short time each day to reflect on something that you are grateful for. If this little bit of wisdom is true, I’m afraid that America must be a VERY unhappy place. No one, it seems, is grateful, any longer, for ANYTHING.
Every day the ingratitude that I see all around me is astonishing. Maybe it’s simply a natural progression of the self centered character of our generation. “Baby boomers”, in my opinion, have got to be the most coddled cohort of human beings in the history of our planet, outdone, perhaps, only by the “snowflakes” currently melting in our secondary schools and colleges.
Our parents (the “Greatest Generation”), having been, as John F. Kennedy put it, “hardened by war and disciplined by a bitter peace”, survived all of that and wanted nothing more than to raise a family in peace and prosperity. And they were determined that the life and livelihood that they bequeathed to their progeny would be better than their own. And they hoped and prayed that the America that they passed on to us would be stronger, safer and more prosperous than ever before.
So, how did we baby boomers respond to this largess? With abject ingratitude, I’m afraid. We took the blessings bestowed upon us for granted, and, as we continued our self absorbed life style we amassed a national debt of 20 TRILLION DOLLARS, a staggering sum that will need to be paid, unavoidably, by our children. Does ANY baby boomer think that our children will have a better life than we’ve had?…. I didn’t think so.
And, after the “extended childhood” that was the 60’s, we morphed into what has been called the “me generation”, a moniker that bespeaks our self absorption, and is NOT something that we should be proud of.
And, as time went on, our warped world view caused all kinds of terrible things to happen. Patriotism went out of fashion. Pride in our nation and our culture became a cause for derision. The sacrifices of our fathers and mothers were forgotten. And, as a result of this degringolade, the depth of our ingratitude grew and grew. It reached its apotheosis, in my opinion, with the election of Barack Hussein Obama, perhaps the most ungrateful person to ever occupy the Oval Office. He might best be remembered as the “standard bearer” of ingratitude, outdone, perhaps, only by his charming wife (who once famously said that she was “never proud of America”, until her husband was elected President, that is).
So, as a nation of ingrates, on we went. And, as a result, our collective ingratitude STILL festers to this day.
One of the most amazing things that Americans, apparently, are ungrateful for, is the unprecedented standard of living that we enjoy. That standard remains the envy of the world. The political writer and activist, Dinesh D’Souza, describes a friend of his in India desperately trying to emigrate (legally) to the US because, as his friend puts it: “I want to live in a place where the poor people are FAT!” For our prosperity, ladies and gentlemen, we should be VERY grateful.
Americans are also ungrateful for the the unprecedented safety and security that we enjoy. In corrupt states like Mexico and many South American “republics”, drug cartels and extortionists victimize the entire populace. In many mid eastern and “third world” countries like Pakistan, Syria and Somalia, internecine religious conflict and terrorism are DAILY facts of life. For our safety and security, we should be VERY grateful.
Americans also seem ungrateful for the unprecedented freedom that we enjoy. Unlike many areas of the world, we are free to choose our schooling, our religion, our livelihood, our place of residence, and many of the other things that make up our lives. Even in relatively sophisticated places like China, a person’s occupation and the size of their family are determined FOR them. And the penalties for recalcitrance are harsh. For our liberty, we should be VERY grateful.
Americans also seem to be ungrateful for our system of government, which they disparage at every opportunity. Core American values such as the presumption of innocence, due process, free speech, selective immigration and merit based citizenship, and others, are ignored or outright ridiculed. As a consequence, many many Americans are no longer grateful for many of the most important things that MAKE our society and our country great. For our Constitution and our government, we should be VERY grateful.
So, on this Thanksgiving Day, I hope that all of us will remember the wise words with which this essay began, and pause for a moment during our busy holiday to reflect on the many things that we have to be grateful for. Gratitude is a wonderful thing. And it just might make us happy.
Happy Thanksgiving to all!