Yesterday was Gratitude.
It’s pretty clear that gratitude is not just some polite nod of thanks, but a powerful psychological perspective that can be very beneficial to one’s health. However that polite recognition is a powerful and important social device as well.
I’m embarrassed to say that I did not really understand “good manners” until well into my adulthood. Not that I was unduly rude, I followed the customs for the most part, please and thank you, excuse me, but always sort of thought of them as vestigial ornaments like polished shoes or neck ties. I was however openly dismissive of those manners of style, as was revisionist custom among my hippie tribe, wearing worn clothes, unkempt hair and bare feet.
I eventually noticed how standards of hygiene and appearance are just like please and thank you, they are customs we use to ritualize social encounters, little handshakes that establish boundaries and standards between us. I still don’t own a suit, but I do unbegrudingly wear shoes, long pants and shirts without holes or stain when going to court or a formal function.
Thank you is perhaps the most fundamental of these essential social niceties. No one is an island, however much we may feel independent or isolated, we are utterly reliant on the kindness of strangers. We need them at least to stop for us when we are crossing the street, to make room for us in the elevator and so on. But these are gifts that inconvenience the giver, and a thank you or other expression of gratitude is a small repayment that acknowledges and reinforces the gift and helps it be paid forward.
So I want to express my deep gratitude to my new family and friends here in the frozen north, who have welcomed me and my idiosyncrasies so generously into their lives and homes, who have fed and sheltered me, even given me lovely and considerate presents. I am very fortunate to have found a new home here among these warm and generous hearts.
HOLLY DAYS 