The Welcome Tree–At the West End Gallery
Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues but the parent of all others.
– Marcus Tullius Cicero
From 2018:
The great Roman orator Cicero certainly has it right. When you think of the great virtues– honor, courage, loyalty, honesty, compassion, respect, and grace along with so many others– you can easily place gratitude as a contributing factor to each. These virtues are often just gratitude set in motion.
If gratitude is not the parent of all virtues, it is at least a conjoined twin.
I am not harping on gratitude now just because it is the week of Thanksgiving. No, it has become painfully obvious that there is a lack of gratitude, and by extension, the absence of accompanying virtues, being shown by many of our public leaders. This includes one person in particular. [Mind you, this was 2018. However, we are still dealing with that one particular person]
Simply put, this lack of gratitude trickles down (much more so than any tax cuts!) from the top to the general population. As a result, we end up with ugly attitudes permeating our daily life.
Gratitude transforms into a sense of entitlement.
Humility becomes boastful self-aggrandizement.
Respect is replaced by insult and denigration.
Courage becomes cowardice.
Loyalty becomes a temporary transaction where one’s loyalty is given only for as long as the other person remains useful.
Empathy devolves into a mocking of the shortcomings and weaknesses of others.
Responsibility is replaced by a need to place blame on others.
Honor becomes disgrace.
Trust turns to deep skepticism.
Grace transforms into insolence and coarseness.
And honesty?
Honesty has turned into a sort of mythological creature, like the Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster–- seldom seen and so shocking that when it finally shows itself, we don’t believe what we are seeing with our own eyes. Dishonesty becomes the accepted norm, and we lose the ability — or even the will–- to distinguish between what is a lie and what is the truth.
Without gratitude, we then become a nation of amoral liars, a land without virtue or honor that can no longer be trusted.
It doesn’t have to continue in this way. We have long believed that we are a nation based on its virtues, always moving towards doing what is right, no matter the cost. We can reclaim that. We can be a country of virtue.
It all starts with simple gratitude.
Be thankful for all that you have. Express it in your words and, more importantly, in your actions.
I thought I would rerun the post above about gratitude that I posted a couple of times several years ago around this time, during the week of Thanksgiving.
I am a firm believer in the words of Cicero at the top, feeling that, if it is fully embraced, gratitude permeates everything we do in a positive way.
I also believe that nobody achieves anything solely on their own, that everyone owes someone something for getting them where they are. Someone along the way taught them something, pointed them in a direction or opened a door that greatly helped them move along.
As much I would like to think I have done everything on my own, even the tiny amount of success I have achieved is the result of lots of help and encouragement from hosts of people. Without them, I am nothing.
A sense of gratitude makes everything it touches better. And as I wrote above, a lack of gratitude debases everything.
Here’s a song that I play every so often around this time of the year. It’s a favorite, one of those songs that I find myself singing to myself for weeks at a time when I hear it again. It’s William DeVaughn and his Be Thankful For What You Got.
Redtree Times 