To forget right away an unkind one is good – Tirukkural (11.8)
Most of us are grateful for something or other. One may wonder what prompts this feeling. Like conscience, it is perhaps an innate aspect of being human. It is certainly an element in the basic values of social beings. It arises from our recognition that we cannot live unless we are sustained by people and forces outside of us. The French Encyclopedist Denis Diderot famously said: “gratitude is a burden, and every burden is made to be shaken off.” We shake it off through words and hearty feelings, through acts towards others so that the good we have received may spread beyond us.
We may not be consciously aware of this every hour, but our existence depends on a number of extraneous factors: the earth’s atmosphere with the right amounts of oxygen and nitrogen, the earth’s appropriate gravitational pull, and a hundred unfailing laws of biochemistry. From one theological perspective, God is essentially the totality of the factors and forces that enable us to survive for a while on this, our dear planet. Every prayer is a thank-you note to the Unfathomable Mystery. As Shakespeare said (in Henry VI):
Let never day nor night, unhallowed pass,
But still remember what the Lord hath done.
We have friends and family who do favors and acts of kindness. To them we have been taught to say, “Thank you!” in various languages.
Aside from God and Nature, as well as known people and well-wishers, there are men and women unseen and unknown whose actions and activities make life possible for us. They include farmers who sow and harvest, transporters of the goods we use, storekeepers who hold these and make them available as and when we need them, mailmen, garbage collectors, and many more. True, we compensate them for their services in monetary modes. But imagine for a moment they go on strike or say, “We won’t be needing your payments for the next three months. So please don’t expect us to meet your needs.” That is why every waking day, we should be grateful to the countless men and women we have never even seen, whose labors make our lives possible and practical.
Petronius’ famous saying serva me, servabo te, loosely translated as scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours, is not gratitude. It is merely reciprocal comforting. Gratitude is the conscious awareness and explicit expression of our interconnectedness in the world: We are able to live because others do. So, we will do our little part for others also.
In these difficult times when suddenly so many people find themselves in pain and peril, we may be particularly grateful to:
The myriad healthcare workers all over the world who are handling and treating people afflicted on various levels by Covid-19.
All the scientific researchers in various labs who are looking for cures and vaccines for this mysterious intruder into human life and civilization.
The many heads of governments and people in positions of responsibility who are suddenly confronted with a horrendous task for which they don’t have adequate resources or assuredly effective strategies, but have to face incessant criticisms and rebukes from people who find them ineffective and slow in action, and a caring press that doesn’t have to solve the problem itself.
The countless simple people who in their different ways are trying to bring help to and console the victims of this pandemic.
As if to soften our overflow of gratitude, we resent and condemn those who entertain and spread hatred for groups in this global crisis; who propagate and swallow conspiracy theories to explain the crisis; who selfishly horde food and other resources with little consideration for others; politicians and ideologues who presume their own approach is the only right one and the opponents are evil-minded; and people who seem to be exploiting the situation to their own economic advantage, ignoring the ill-effects on their victims.
Such then is life: There are always some things to complain about, but also much, much to be grateful for.
Spurts of Thought 