Gratitude
Living in America in the 21st Century makes you one of the luckiest human beings who ever inhabited our planet. A few thousand years ago, our ancestors were not on top of the food chain, they were in the middle. A few hundred years ago, average life expectancy was about 30. In 1900, it was 40. Today, it is approaching 80. We routinely cure diseases that routinely killed our parents. Most of our ancestors never traveled more than a few miles from the place they were born. Most of them had very modest access to entertainment or information except a tiny minority who were literate. Their access to information and entertainment was limited to a few precious books. Most of the human beings who proceeded us spent the bulk of their time trying to get enough to eat. Our problem is obesity. We should be filled with gratitude all day, every day.
But . . . you say loudly . . . we are in the midst of a pandemic! Even that is a cause to be thankful. It’s not the Black Death (which killed at least 1/3 of Europe) or the Spanish flu (which killed at least 50 million worldwide). We understand the mechanism of the disease and its transmission. Except for the elderly, the mortality rate is low. Within 18 months, we will have a vaccine, maybe sooner. COVID-19 is a major inconvenience, but not a threat to our species.
If we have cause to be grateful, why is our level of angst, discontent and depression so high? I don’t know for sure, but I have some suggestions.
We don’t know how good we have it compared to the past because we know little or nothing of the past. Most young people have taken no history courses. If they have, the course consisted of a catalog of the sins of dead white males.
At least 15% of our population is excessively ingesting a mood altering chemical on a regular basis. The initial effect is euphoria. Over time, the result is depression, loneliness and degradation. This is our most severe public health problem. Our response is tepid. For the most part, we aren’t even fully acknowledging the problem.
We are constantly reminded to engage in comparative thinking. Our life must be bad because somebody else has more. This is a useless exercise. The sooner you realize that, no matter what you have, somebody out there is prettier, smarter or richer, the better off you are. I once read about an aboriginal tribe whose mathematics consisted of one, two and enough. That won’t work for the physical sciences, but it works well for most of the rest of life.
We spend a whole lot of time worrying about people, institutions and situations over which we have no control. If you have no control, it’s not worth worrying about.
What can you do to achieve a state of gratitude?
Make a list of the things you are grateful for and read it every now and again. When you have a pleasant experience, add it to the list.
Smile every chance you get. There is solid evidence that the act of smiling triggers activity in your brain that improves your mood. You probably know somebody you would describe as a “ray of sunshine”. If you carefully observe that person, you will note a lot of smiling.
Look around and find somebody who can use a little help. The act of helping gets you worrying about something other than things you can’t change and people who have more than you do.
Lifespan, no matter how much medical science prolongs it, is a wasting asset. You have a limited number of days of consciousness left. Don’t waste any of them in a sour place. In the immortal words of the song: Don’t worry; be happy . . . and wash your hands several times a day.
