So for FHE yesterday, my group made "Turkey Hands," and we wrote around the outside of the turkey things that we were thankful for. It isn't so hard. I started writing things here and there (The Gospel, my family, my school, Red Vines, etc.) and thought I was making good progress.
That is, until I noticed that everyone else was hardly stopping to breathe as they wrote. They seemed to get two for every one that I had written. So I started writing more (my roommates, Mathematica, breaks from school, warm blankets, etc.) But try as I might, I just couldn't keep up with the rest of them. So now they are all posted on our door and some of the turkey papers are so full that there is hardly any negative space; mine just has a pleasant splattering of blessings.
I was worried at first that perhaps I was less thankful than everyone else in my group. I was wandering around concerned today when I realized something: maybe I don't sit around being grateful for birds and red bricks and lined paper and other things, but I don't really go around complaining about things either. I think that it is OK to feel less thankful if you feel less needy.
As long as your thanks outweigh your requests, I think you are just fine.
3 comments:
You're worried about quantity of thankfulness, but have you considered that maybe you have a higher quality of thankfulness--you like Red Vines waaaaaaay more than anyone else there.
so i guess life is like keeping a healthy statement of cash flows...except that we deal in gratitude and selfishness, not debits and credits.....
Does this mean that as long as I'm sufficiently thankful, I can complain about pretty much anything I want?
I remember similar exercises with my CTR 7 class. They were equally competitive.
One would say, "I'm thankful for my mom and dad."
Another would say, "Well, I'm thankful for my whole family."
Eventually someone will say, "I'm thankful for the universe!"
Concepts of the universe, infinity (for sizes of things), and googleplex (for numbers of things) come in really handy for people who are competitively thankful.
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