In this episode, Susan James and I talk about gratitude. This episode is based on the latest dispatch from The Embassy - Counting Blessings.
Here is an excerpt …
Most of us take what we have for granted and many of us feel that we are losing out on something that others have. Or, even if things are better now, that we lost out before on something so we are not as far as we ‘should’ be. Everything is relative to a set of expectations that excludes a fallen world and our own fallen nature - so any setback is not placed next to the many blessings we have received but can so easily ignore. And so we lack gratitude. If we expect a life of unbroken health for ourselves and our loved ones, of ever rising success and prosperity, of continuing security, of constant enjoyment … all expectations that surely won’t be met in this actual life in this actual place among these actual people - we will not be filled with thankfulness. We will think we have grounds for grievance, even if we, in what we convince ourselves is virtue, don’t act on the grievance.
I have experienced many young people who feel that they have, uniquely, a legitimate grievance because they have grown up in a time of economic uncertainty. I will pass over the observation that I have lived through all of those times as well. Even so, a useful question in life is “compared to what”? Those who grew up in almost every decade in the last century certainly had things worse - WWI, the great pandemic, the crash, the depression, WWII, the Cold War, war in the Middle East, assassinations, hostages in Iran, stagflation, domestic bombings in the 70’s, the dot com bubble crash, 9/11 … etc. But these previous generations may not have had things worse compared to their expectations.
We listed some reasons above why it doesn’t usually seem like things are better. There is another one - things may not be better in some important ways. It is better in ways we take for granted, and worse in ways we take for granted. We are broken and so is the world and economic progress does not make that go away. That might be another misplaced expectation - that if we all move toward prosperity together, all the big problems will fade. The world is worse in ways it couldn’t be worse before - precisely because we have more wealth than we need - worse in ways that only wealth makes possible.
Read the whole article.
Links
Travel Advisory for Ethiopia - U.S. State Department
Our World in Data - Economic Growth - Global Change Data Lab
A Goose in a Dress - Tonya Gold, Harpers, September 2015
On Culture - Counting Blessings