November 21, 2007

Thanks, But No Thanks

By James Lewis
Thanksgiving is just one day a year. The rest of the time we have a National Gratitude Deficit --- or at least our noisiest public voices do. Media demagogues are constantly whipping up ingratitude towards the good things in our world. Giving thanks is not their schtick. So it's worthwhile to think today about gratitude and its conspicuous absence.  Gratitude is a noble virtue; you have to respect yourself to be grateful to others.  Only those who feel blessed can be filled with gratitude.  It is a kind of courtesy of the heart.William Shakespeare's most agonized play, King Lear, grapples with the ingratitude of Lear's daughters toward their royal father. It is an extended contemplation of the Elizabethan virtues of thankfulness and loyalty; and what happens when those virtues are lost. King Lear is foully betrayed by the older two daughters, who flatter his vanity, while misunderstanding the honest love of his youngest daughter Claudia. Lear is an object lesson in the...(Read Full Article)