Day 13: I’m thankful for Grumpy Cat.
If you’re on Twitter or Facebook, you’ve seen posts like this flooding your feed for the past two weeks, although the items people are thankful for are probably a little less mundane than a cat meme.
Regardless, it never fails. We turn the calendar page to November, and suddenly the people of the nation start babbling about what they’re thankful for.
Oh, and somewhere along the line, it became in vogue to list 30 things one is thankful for, and share each item with friends and followers on social networks.
Being thankful garners a 4 1/2 out of five turkey review with a side of super creamy mashed potatoes to boot. Being thankful for what we have is great. It helps put our lives in perspective. It allows us to take disappointments in stride. Gratitude has the power to keep us humble, and sharing what and who we’re thankful for helps others know they are appreciated.
So why do we only do it one month out of the year?
I work with an incredibly insightful and incredibly feisty woman. She brought it to my attention that if people are going to be thankful for something, they should be thankful for it the entire year.
“UGH!” she’d exclaim as she checked her Facebook wall, only to see her friends naming things they’re thankful for. “That bugs me so much!”
It was she who made me realize how ridiculous it actually is to reserve just one month to count your blessings. It’s such a silly concept to focus on an important aspect of living for a mere 30 days.
It’s like deciding to only remember the contributions of black people in history for just 28 days, or deciding to focus attention on finding a cure for breast cancer for only four weeks. The whole notion is silly, and I don’t know who in their right mind would want the public to concentrate on such issues for just one month.
We’re not a bunch of neanderthals. We don’t have to have, and we most certainly shouldn’t have, months dedicated to things we should be doing every day. Instead of 30 days of being thankful, perhaps we should strive for 365 days of being thankful.
And if we can share what we’re thankful for 30 days straight, then we should be able to do it for the rest of the year.
It might just up those 4 1/2 turkeys to a solid five.
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