Smattering of Thoughts on Gratitude

I woke up this morning* (*Monday 8/19, posting postponed due to rather uncooperative internet) at 4:30 – thanks jetlag - to a cockroach on the kitchen floor and ants swarming the kitchen counter. Now I’m sitting here writing this while waiting for the slow internet to work to send an email. I’ve been trying for the last half hour.

Kind of ready to turn around and go back home. The ease. The convenience.

Then I remembered a story the Speaker at the Fellowship I attend told yesterday. He had a group of Nigerians visiting, staying in his home. He asked them what, overall, they best liked about Vietnam. Their answer? The more stable internet connection and electricity! Ha. Oh, perspective!

Gratitude’s been on my mind a lot lately (for the whole past year, too). Funny how that was also the topic discussed at Fellowship yesterday. The Speaker shared another story that illustrates my mindset most days pretty well. Imagine a beggar on the street. A person walks by, has compassion, and gives him some money. The next day, he does the same. This continues for an entire week. The next week, the same person walks by but is preoccupied and doesn’t notice the beggar. The beggar yells out, “Hey, where’s my money!?”

Yup, this is my daily sense of self-entitlement. I’m used to enjoying lots of good things. Things I don’t deserve. At first I might be grateful, but pretty soon I forget that I’m not actually owed them. And when they’re no longer there, I get defensive and crabby.

I also read an interesting article this morning about Vietnam which shares some of the same topical themes: http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/Talk-Around-Town/226333/are-we-content-or-oblivious.htmlutm_source=Family+Newsletter+August%2C+2012&utm_campaign=Google+Analytics&utm_medium=email

The article discusses Vietnam’s 2^nd place status in the 2012 Happy Planet Index, and the author questions whether this actually stems from oblivion or contentment. My follow up question is, “Is oblivion always a bad thing?” Obviously it can be, but sometimes I wonder if a little more oblivion as to what we don’t have wouldn’t help us “well to do” countries out sometimes. Seems like the 80 year old woman from Hanoi, Nguyen Thi Vinh, has the right idea when she said, "You could not imagine how miserable life was decades ago. I could not enjoy a single peaceful night or even a meal without rushing off to a bomb shelter. We now have nice food to eat, good clothes to put on and don't have to see our family members or friends killed. What else could we ask for?"

Actually, that sounds a lot more like gratitude to me than oblivion. Contentment stemming from gratitude. How closely those two things are connected!

I do have to wonder about the demographics of the thousand Vietnamese people interviewed, though. At least in my limited experience here, I feel the younger generation is overall less content than the older with their given status. 

And now I'm off to navigate the bus system for the first time since being back. We'll see if I can keep these thoughts on gratitude an its connection with contentment in mind as I do so!