BACK ON THE HORSE
Greetings My Friends,
Well, I haven’t posted anything since August 17 so I suppose it’s time to get back on the horse that threw me (or I threw myself from, I’m not quite sure). So here we go…
I’d like to talk about gratitude. Not having it, finding it, having it, losing it, being unable to see it when it’s there. You know, LIFE. On its face, gratitude seems like a simple proposition. You either have it or you don’t. But is it OK to have gratitude for some things in your life, but not others? Does this “gray area” make us actually ungrateful in total? These questions pester my subconscious, and my serenity.
I’m by nature a gray area person. Absolutes make me absolutely nuts. Most peoples’ absolutes, in my experience, are basically their opinions dressed up as facts. My father told me when I was a young man that opinions are like assholes. Everybody has one and they usually stink. I’ve found his choice wisdom on this subject to be true (this includes my opinions) about 99.99% of the time. In addition to being dressed up as facts, opinions wear some other clothing:
Stereotypes
Attitudes
Judgments
Expectations
Truths
Disagreements
Self-Righteousness
I suppose I could go on, but I think you get my drift. The generally accepted name for all of these disguised opinions is bullshit (BS). More BS has a decidedly negative impact on gratitude, while a reduction in bullshit results in more gratitude. Since more gratitude is what I’m sure we all want, we need to eliminate as much BS from our lives as we can. Since no one can really control anyone else (that’s an illusion), the process of bullshit reduction begins and ends with ourselves. First we must translate the BS to non-BS:
Stereotypes becomes Individual
Attitude becomes Understanding
Judgment becomes Acceptance
Expectations become Empathy
Truth becomes Honesty
Disagreement becomes Point of View
Self-Righteousness becomes Love.
Now that we’ve translated the bullshit into something grounded in reality, it’s time for us to get to work increasing our gratitude.
We are all individuals doing the best we can in this world. Assuming the best about others results in less stress. Less stress equals less resistance to gratitude.
If life throws troubles at me, it must be true that it does so to others as well. Understanding that we all have troubles means we all have common ground. We should have gratitude that we are not alone in this struggle.
The ability to accept that people, places, things and situations are exactly as they are supposed to be at this very moment is key. It will do more to increase our gratitude level than any other BS shift.
Instead of expecting others to care about our trials and tribulations, simply care about others. The rest will take care of itself.
Truth is open to interpretation and as such is a gratitude killer. Truth is related to judgment, where as honesty is related to humanity. More humanity, more gratitude.
Disagreement by definition places one side against the other. Result? Gratitude debit. Point of View looks at the same light from different sides of the prism. While the light is bent differently from each point of view, both are equally beautiful in their color. Result? Gratitude asset.
I’ll make a guess here and say that love doesn’t need further explanation. Big plus!
If we can be unique, loving individuals who understand and accept other peoples’ point of view without judgment, gratitude grows. If we can be honest with ourselves and others, empathizing with each persons’ struggles and triumphs, gratitude flourishes.
Maybe asking if gratitude is something we have or don’t have is the wrong question. Perhaps a better question is why would we choose to have anything else?
Enjoy today. It's all any of us have and all any of us need. Till next time…
Gene
Well, I haven’t posted anything since August 17 so I suppose it’s time to get back on the horse that threw me (or I threw myself from, I’m not quite sure). So here we go…
I’d like to talk about gratitude. Not having it, finding it, having it, losing it, being unable to see it when it’s there. You know, LIFE. On its face, gratitude seems like a simple proposition. You either have it or you don’t. But is it OK to have gratitude for some things in your life, but not others? Does this “gray area” make us actually ungrateful in total? These questions pester my subconscious, and my serenity.
I’m by nature a gray area person. Absolutes make me absolutely nuts. Most peoples’ absolutes, in my experience, are basically their opinions dressed up as facts. My father told me when I was a young man that opinions are like assholes. Everybody has one and they usually stink. I’ve found his choice wisdom on this subject to be true (this includes my opinions) about 99.99% of the time. In addition to being dressed up as facts, opinions wear some other clothing:
Stereotypes
Attitudes
Judgments
Expectations
Truths
Disagreements
Self-Righteousness
I suppose I could go on, but I think you get my drift. The generally accepted name for all of these disguised opinions is bullshit (BS). More BS has a decidedly negative impact on gratitude, while a reduction in bullshit results in more gratitude. Since more gratitude is what I’m sure we all want, we need to eliminate as much BS from our lives as we can. Since no one can really control anyone else (that’s an illusion), the process of bullshit reduction begins and ends with ourselves. First we must translate the BS to non-BS:
Stereotypes becomes Individual
Attitude becomes Understanding
Judgment becomes Acceptance
Expectations become Empathy
Truth becomes Honesty
Disagreement becomes Point of View
Self-Righteousness becomes Love.
Now that we’ve translated the bullshit into something grounded in reality, it’s time for us to get to work increasing our gratitude.
We are all individuals doing the best we can in this world. Assuming the best about others results in less stress. Less stress equals less resistance to gratitude.
If life throws troubles at me, it must be true that it does so to others as well. Understanding that we all have troubles means we all have common ground. We should have gratitude that we are not alone in this struggle.
The ability to accept that people, places, things and situations are exactly as they are supposed to be at this very moment is key. It will do more to increase our gratitude level than any other BS shift.
Instead of expecting others to care about our trials and tribulations, simply care about others. The rest will take care of itself.
Truth is open to interpretation and as such is a gratitude killer. Truth is related to judgment, where as honesty is related to humanity. More humanity, more gratitude.
Disagreement by definition places one side against the other. Result? Gratitude debit. Point of View looks at the same light from different sides of the prism. While the light is bent differently from each point of view, both are equally beautiful in their color. Result? Gratitude asset.
I’ll make a guess here and say that love doesn’t need further explanation. Big plus!
If we can be unique, loving individuals who understand and accept other peoples’ point of view without judgment, gratitude grows. If we can be honest with ourselves and others, empathizing with each persons’ struggles and triumphs, gratitude flourishes.
Maybe asking if gratitude is something we have or don’t have is the wrong question. Perhaps a better question is why would we choose to have anything else?
Enjoy today. It's all any of us have and all any of us need. Till next time…
Gene
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