The Power of Gratitude

Gratitude... it's like magic.

Yesterday I was reading a book in which at the end of one chapter the authors gave readers an assignment to make a list of 25 things they were grateful for. I decided to do this and found out something. Nearly the entire list was people, people who have enriched my life in a multitude of ways, family, friends, relatives, and eventually a few things like our home, Susie's garden, a career in which I could use my gifts, etc.

While writing this, other people keep coming to mind, people who helped me or cared about me or encouraged me, including teachers, coaches, and even a few strangers.  I'm also grateful that  I'm not dead yet. And overarching the whole is a sense of gratitude to God for this gift of life.

These thoughts prompted me to find quotes on gratitude to inspire you as well. Many of the names are familiar and some surprising. May you find something here to lift your heart and your spirit in these turbulent, unsettling times.

"Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others."
--Cicero

"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them."
--John F. Kennedy

"When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude."
--G.K. Chesterton

"I don't have to chase extraordinary moments to find happiness - it's right in front of me if I'm paying attention and practicing gratitude."
--Brene Brown

"Gratitude is riches. Complaint is poverty."
--Doris Day

Cape May, NJ --1999

"Nine-tenths of wisdom is appreciation. Go find somebody's hand and squeeze it, while there's time."
--Dale Dauten

"Thankfulness is the tune of angels."
--Edmund Spenser

"Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things."
--Robert Brault

"When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around."
--Willie Nelson

"Gratitude and attitude are not challenges; they are choices."
--Robert Braathe

"Gratitude... It can change everything, almost like magic."
--Kat Senn

"If a fellow isn't thankful for what he's got, he isn't likely to be thankful for what he's going to get."
--Frank A. Clark

"Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it."
--William Arthur Ward

"If you want to turn your life around, try thankfulness. It will change your life mightily."
--Gerald Good

And finally, this verse from Paul's letter to the Philippians, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything give thanks." Words that we especially need today as much as ever.

Thank you for reading. 

Who Can and Can't Get Elected In American Today?

Detail from artwork by Leah Yellowbird

"War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today." --Letter to a Navy friend, quoted in Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.'s A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1965)

I lead off with this quote because it dovetails with another, which I can't find at this moment, in which President Kennedy said that a black and a woman would sit in the White House before a conscientious objector would. Half of that equation has come to pass. We'll likely see the other half in our lifetimes, and probably not see the C.O. gain that highest office.

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Earlier today I came across a Gallup Poll that shows which belief systems are least problematic for those seeking the highest public office. The article is titled Socialism and Atheism Still U.S. Political Liabilities.

More than three decades ago I came across a 1934 pamphlet written by a Harvard scholar that made the case your religious belief could be a handicap if they did not align with the American culture. I forget the details, but it essentially said you have to give lip service to God even if you did not believe in God.

Birches by Sue Rauschenfels

This was further exemplified in the 1960 presidential election in which John F. Kennedy faced serious opposition--was excoriated--because he was Catholic, and might take his orders from the Pope rather than Congress or the People.

My view from that day to the present was that we should always be suspicious about any politician's statement regarding any belief. This is not to say a politician can't be earnest, but for the most part the public should not be so gullible as to believe they mean what they say.

THIS IS ALL SETUP for some interesting poll data from the Gallup organization.

According to recent polls, over 90% of Americans would vote for a black, Catholic, Hispanic, Jewish or who was a woman. A much smaller number would vote for an atheist or Muslim. And only a minority would support a socialist.

The pollsters also included several additional categories: Evangelical Christian, Gay/Lesbian, Under 40, and Over 70.

The Gallup team also sliced and diced the data by political party as well, so that one can see where each category stands for Dems and GOP. Not surprisingly 99% of Democrats would elect a black and only 91% of Republicans would vote that way. (Disappointing.)

88% of Republicans and 77% of Democrats would vote for a candidate identified as an Evangelical Christian, which shows vividly how much the name Evangelical has been tarnished in the past century.

If data turns you on as much as it does me, here's a link to this specific poll data and a link to the Gallup's Presidential Election Center. I especially like their slogan: The Metrics That Matter.

Oh, and though they never asked about Conscientious Objectors, I'm guessing JFK was prescient about this. Maybe the Gallup organization should think about adding that question next time. What do you think?

Notes from an Old Card Catalog

As I continue my assault on getting organized, I keep finding things I'd forgotten I had. The other day I decided to examine several small boxes containing 3'x 5" note cards, the kind we used to use in high school and college when doing research for a paper.

One such box from four decades ago had a lot of notes about cults, with one of these quoting a writer as saying cults are the biggest threat to America today. It's been a long time since cults were front page news.

Here are some quotes that I found intriguing from this another batch of note cards.

* * * *

"People judge us by what they see--our actions, our means--not our intentions."--Jacques Ellul

"A people which no longer remembers has lost its history and its soul."--Aleksandr Sozhenitsyn

"There is a powerful tendency to move from the conviction that one knows the public good to the use of (force) power to impose that good."--Jeanne Kirkpatriick

"Within the last decade there have been many references from varied sources to the fact that the Western world stands on the verge of a spiritual rebirth, that is, a fundamental change of attitude toward the value of life."--Cary F. Baynes, translator's preface to Jung's Modern Man in Search of a Soul (1933)

Solipsism: the view that there is no reality outside of the self; all things relate solely to the experiences of the observer.

"A rising mass movement attracts and holds a following not by its doctrine and promises, but by the refuge it offers from the anxieties, barrenness and meaninglessness of an individual existence."--Eric Hoffer, The True Believer

"Three things are to be looked to in a building: that it stand on the right spot; that it be securely founded; that it be successfully executed."--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"There is always inequity in life. Some men are killed in a war and some are wounded, and some men never leave the country."--John F. Kennedy, March 21, 1962 press conference

"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."--George Orwell, Animal Farm

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14 Quotes for a New Monday Morning

For most, our two biggest influences are the people we meet and the books we read. Interestingly, I've always felt that the books we read are just the same as meeting people, except we encounter them in another form. Ideas, expressed in words, are inexplicably powerful as they are transmitted from mind to mind.

There is no direct relationship between the various quotes on this page, other than that they spoke strongly enough that I wrote them down. Each stands alone, though some pair nicely with others as well, adding insights by casting new light from a different angle.

"Once you label me you negate me."
--Kierkegaard

"Fiction makes you think; propaganda tells you how to think."
--Amy Tan, from the chapter "required reading and other dangerous subjects" in her book The Opposite of Fate

"I can't imagine being a writer and having others dictate to me what I should write, why I should write, and whom I should write for. And this is the reason I consider myself an American writer: I have the freedom to write whatever I want. I claim that freedom."
--Amy Tan, ibid.

"We live in an era in which appearances seem more important than reality."
--Gordon Marino, The Existentialist's Survival Guide

“I live in my dreams — that's what you sense. Other people live in dreams, but not in their own. That's the difference.”
--Herman Hesse, Demian

“If you can't change your fate, change your attitude.”
― Amy Tan

"It is a mistake to intend to write only very important things in a journal. That is not its justification."
-- Andre Gide

"Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."
--Howard Thurman

"If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him."
~-John F. Kennedy

"The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider's web."
--Pablo Picasso

"Silent gratitude isn't much use to anyone."
--G.B. Stern

"I have no special gift. I am only passionately curious."
--Albert Einstein

"Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit. We are all the same in this notion: The potential for greatness lives within each of us."
-- Wilma Rudolph, Olympic Sprinter

"Your life is what you see in front of you."
--Amy Tan, The Joy Luck Club

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And now, it is time to make your mark.

A Few JFK Quotes

His reputation was large. I remember hearing, while doing the Evelyn Wood training for speed reading with comprehension in sixth grade, that John F. Kennedy could read 2000 words a minute. This seemed astonishing to me. Equally astonishing was the assassination which occurred just months before.

Without doubt he became our 35th president at a very dicey time. The Cold War was hot, and the times were a-changin'. The Russians appeared to be ahead in "the Space Race" and the Civil Rights movement was in full bloom with nothing as yet resolved.

He called himself “an idealist without illusions” which feels like a pretty apt moniker. Raised from a vantage point inside the corridors of power, there's no doubt he had ample opportunity to get jaded... but somehow managed to inspire a generation to step up to the plate and make a mark in history. Despite his brief time in office, his shadow has stretched long.

The following are a few pointed and pithy thoughts from the heart of a president who's life was indeed cut short in its prime.

"A child miseducated is a child lost."

"A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on."

"A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people."

"And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."

"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them."

"Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future."

"Communism has never come to power in a country that was not disrupted by war or corruption, or both."

"Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth."

"Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men."

"Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction."

"For time and the world do not stand still. Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future."

"Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names."

"I just received the following wire from my generous Daddy; Dear Jack, Don't buy a single vote more than is necessary. I'll be damned if I'm going to pay for a landslide."

"Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty."

"Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate."

"Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future."

"Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind."

"Mothers all want their sons to grow up to be president, but they don't want them to become politicians in the process."

"Too often we... enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought."

It's easy to see without reading too far how witty the man was, or perhaps talented his team of writers. If you enjoyed these, a Google search will bring you plenty more to chew on.

In the meantime, have a great day... and make a difference.