Editorial:  For Thanksgiving Day, some gratitude through the ages

Thanksgiving, the most traditional of holidays, has gotten downright trendy in a way. Psychologists and self-help authors are full of praise these days for the ways in which thanksgiving, with a small “t”, can change our lives, make us more optimistic and likely to succeed. Of course, that view of gratitude takes away one of its main beauties: Gratitude isn’t supposed to be all about us.

The origins of the ritual and practice of giving thanks, when it came to the Pilgrims, were religious: thanking God. And one of the criticisms of the modern practice of gratitude is that while it involves talk of thanks, it leaves out a crucial question: To whom or what are those thanks directed?

But philosophers and writers have mused since ancient times on gratitude. They often have taken a more expansive view of thankfulness, seeing in it an awareness of and appreciation for what we have and what is around us, or a sense, as one writer said, that even the simplest things can give us a sense of sufficiency — that we have enough. Or they have narrowed it to an elevated form of Schadenfreude: Hey, at least I’m better off than that poor schnook!

In the hope of elevating our thoughts this Thanksgiving, here are some musings from great minds about the various ways of viewing gratitude. And by the way, thanks for reading.

“We can be thankful to a friend for a few acres or a little money; and yet for the freedom and command of the whole earth, and for the great benefits of our being, our life, health, and reason, we look upon ourselves as under no obligation.”

— Lucius Annaeus Seneca or Seneca the Younger, Roman philosopher

“The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.”

— Henry Miller, American author of “Tropic of Cancer”

“We hope that, when the insects take over the world, they will remember with gratitude how we took them along on all our picnics.”

— Bill Vaughn, American columnist

“But if objects for gratitude and admiration are our desire, do they not present themselves every hour to our eyes? Do we not see a fair creation prepared to receive us the instant we are born — a world furnished to our hands, that cost us nothing? Is it we that light up the sun; that pour down the rain; and fill the earth with abundance? Whether we sleep or wake, the vast machinery of the universe still goes on. Are these things, and the blessings they indicate in future, nothing to us?”

— Thomas Paine, American Founding Father, philosopher, in “The Age of Reason”

“Nothing that is done for you is a matter of course. Everything originates in a will for the good, which is directed at you. Train yourself never to put off the word or action for the expression of gratitude.”

— Albert Schweitzer, European doctor and missionary

“I feel a very unusual sensation — if it is not indigestion, I think it might be gratitude.”

— Benjamin Disraeli, 19th century British prime minister

“Every day, think as you wake up: ‘Today I am fortunate to have woken up. I am alive, I have a precious human life. I am not going to waste it.’”

— The Dalai Lama

“At some point in life the world’s beauty becomes enough. You don’t need to photograph, paint or even remember it. It is enough.”

— Toni Morrison, American author, in “Tar Baby”

“Only a stomach that rarely feels hungry scorns common things.”

— Horace, Roman poet

“It’s enough for me to be sure that you and I exist at this moment.”

— Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Colombian author, in “One Hundred Years of Solitude”

“Mark how fleeting and paltry is the estate of man — yesterday in embryo, tomorrow a mummy or ashes. So for the hairsbreadth of time assigned to thee, live rationally, and part with life cheerfully, as drops the ripe olive, extolling the season that bore it and the tree that matured it.”

— Marcus Aurelius, Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher

“I thank Thee first because I was never robbed before; second, because although they took my purse they did not take my life; third, although they took my all, it was not much; and fourth, because it was I who was robbed and not I who robbed.”

— Matthew Henry, 17th century British Puritan minister and author

“Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.”

— Marcel Proust, French author of “In Search of Lost Time”

“So long, and thanks for all the fish.”

— Dolphins leaving Earth in the fourth book, by the same title, of “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams

“Thanks for the memory / Of sentimental verse, / Nothing in my purse, / And chuckles / When the preacher said / For better or for worse, / How lovely it was.

“Thanks for the memory / Of Schubert’s Serenade, / Little things of jade / And traffic jams / And anagrams / And bills we never paid, / How lovely it was.”

— Bob Hope theme song, lyrics by Leo Robin

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