The Culture of “Gratitude”

Have you ever taken a pause from life to reflect on the fact that we always find ourselves with a need to compare something to be grateful for whatever we have? Whoever we are being grateful to, or whatever we are being grateful for, there has been a necessity for the need to apply the same essence of gratitude that has been handed down to us by our forefathers.

“You should be thankful for the food you get. Some people don’t even receive such a blessing.”

“The life you’re living today, somebody else would have been grateful to have it.”

One of the versions of the quote below that triggered this article was:

Perhaps by showing gratitude, we try to display the great impact something has on us and we can only give it value by comparing it with something less. Or maybe, it is a method to inspire ourselves to do better by realizing that we at least have “something” that the other person does not.

However, in the name of what we call a blessing or are being grateful for, perhaps we don’t realize that we may be belittling whoever we are comparing the blessing with. Perhaps we hardly realize that this is what our reaction to being grateful is.

The question is if we really need something to be grateful for, can’t we genuinely just be without the need to have something compared?

In the end, I’ve felt that instead of a blessing, it converts into a comparison.

Also, I mean, ma’am/sir, from a perspective of sympathy and consideration of the humanity, I stand with you. But when this comes to my perspective, where I feel the need to voice out where I am at, and where I aim to be, I don’t think that should be counted as ungrateful; rather, it should be counted as striving.