Posted by guest blogger BroKen
I'm trying to think of something new to say about gratitude. What could be said that hasn't been said over and over again on Thanksgiving Day? How about this; gratitude stinks!
In the first place,saying “thank you” for something implies that you don't deserve that thing; that you didn't earn it; that you shouldn't really have it. Who wants to think like that? It is terribly degrading. You don't say “thank you” when you get your paycheck,do you? They should be thanking you for what you did to earn it. All you want is what is rightfully yours. What is rightfully yours is all you want.
Gratitude is demeaning.
Then there is that fact that people sometimes express gratitude by saying,“much obliged”. Whether they say it that way or not,the obligation is still evident in any words of gratitude. If someone has done something and you say “thank you” then you have to do something for them sometime.
Well,maybe you don't HAVE to,but the sense of obligation is still there. That is why gratitude stinks. It makes you feel like you are bound to someone else. Much better to be free to do whatever you want and not be tied down to any expectation of behavior.
If you ask someone to do something for you and they do it,eventually you'll have to do something similar for them to even the score. If they do something you didn't ask for,you should not be obligated to repay them. Not even an expression of gratitude is necessary. You had no choice in the matter,so you have no obligation. Some people say that we should be grateful for life itself. But none of us asked to be alive. No one created themselves. Since we didn't have any choice to be here, we have no obligation and therefore we should not be grateful. I am that I am and that is all that I am. How I came to be is irrelevant.
There is no reason to express gratitude. It is demeaning. It restricts your freedom. Gratitude stinks.
Have I convinced you on this Thanksgiving Day to be put away the turkey and send your extended family back to where they came from and go back to work so that you can earn your keep in this dog eat dog existence? Oh,I hope not. But perhaps by looking at gratitude from a backward, arrogant perspective,you have a new appreciation for the humility and connectedness that flows out of a grateful heart.
An attitude of gratitude holds people together,while pride and a lack of gratitude blows us apart. Give thanks for life. You couldn't be here by yourself. Give thanks for other people. You wouldn't be you without them. Give thanks to God; the Source of all good gifts. My mother used to joke that perfume “stinks pretty”. If gratitude stinks,it is a perfume with a beautiful “stink”.
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