Thanksgiving
One
Why do we tend to focus on danger and the negative?
Our brain is wired to be hyper-vigilant to threats like predators and hostile tribes and kingdoms to survive. This means we respond more intensely to negative stimuli, making us more likely to notice and remember bad events over good ones. The amygdala, the brain's emotional center, is especially reactive to negative experiences, amplifying their impact. This is why we often focus more on negative or threatening information, a phenomenon known as the negativity bias.
Modern media exploits this bias because bad news sells. Profit-driven news outlets bombard us with negativity, skewing our perception of the world and fueling fear, anger, and anxiety. We're constantly exposed to messages that make the world seem more dangerous than it is. And most people are addicted to the news in some form or other.
On top of that, social media encourages us to compare ourselves to others, breeding feelings of inadequacy and becoming a major obstacle to happiness. All this combines to put us in a "soup of sadness."
But there's a powerful antidote: gratitude.
Two
What is Gratitude?
Gratitude means not taking for granted the good things you have. Let’s just take two vices for example. Envy and greed depend on taking the good things you have for granted. It means, essentially, forgetting about them, so you can go after the stuff you don’t have, particularly other folks’ good fortune.
Gratitude is one of the most central and most neglected of all Christian obligations. In fact, St. Alphonsus Liguori says that at our judgment, the second step will be when God shows us our sin, and it will be too late to say I’m sorry. But the first stage, and the more painful stage, will be when God shows you all the gifts we were given, and it will be too late to say thank you.
So now’s the time to say thank you. And to really say thank you, we have to actually think about everything God’s given us.
Three
Every good thing you have is surprising
We take our blessings for granted and then give into greed and envy because we forget that, actually, every one of our gifts is totally gratuitous and surprising. After all, there’s no compelling reason why you should have existed at all. There’s no compelling reason why the universe should have existed at all, so definitely there’s no compelling reason why you should have existed.
Everything in the universe, including you and everything you possess, might just as easily have never existed if God hadn’t decided to create it all. There would be less of your goods, and less you if God had made different creative decisions, which He totally could have.
In other words, it is objectively surprising, it is absolutely not obvious, that you should have everything that you have. It’s not surprising that you don’t have more. It’s surprising that you have so much.
That is the proper metaphysical perspective based on the nature of being itself. And that perspective is one that should lead to gratitude.
Four
And this world is just the prelude to the next world
So not only is every material thing we have a totally gratuitous gift, but this world itself is only a prelude to the next world of perfect, boundless happiness. Imagine there was a huge party, with kings and rock stars and billionaires, and for no apparent reason, you got an invitation to be there. And they sent a limo to your house to take you to the party. And all the while, while you were riding to this extravagant part, in a limo, all you could do was complain about the limo. That it didn’t have enough snacks or a wide enough drink selection, or that someone you know once rode in a nicer limo. What kind of bizarre ingratitude is that?
That’s what it means for a Christian to be habitually dissatisfied with their worldly situation. This is, actually, a pretty great world. And it’s just a ride to the super-party of heaven. And we are awfully lucky to be taking this ride.
Five
Thinking about the gifts you do have
So how regularly are you stopping to be astonished at the fact that you are alive and provided for? How often do you make an inventory of the things you have? Do you even count up to twenty-five, for instance? Maybe you should.
Chesterton says that, “Thanks are the highest form of thought and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.”
As a resolution for today, take a step back, look over the whole of your life, and see how much good overwhelms the bad, how God has gotten you through every difficult and painful thing, and that most of what you feared never even happened. Then remember that perfect unending happiness awaits you in Heaven. That will get rid of the terrible sadness sown by Satan and this culture of death.