An Attitude of Gratitude

This phrase was something my dad often spoke of during my growing-up years. He talked about how important it was to cultivate an “attitude of gratitude”…about how just learning to be thankful for all the good things we take for granted can make such an impact in our day-to-day life. As an adult I find once again (quite usual these days) that he was right.

I, for one, am really tired of hearing about how the American people in general are impoverished, hungry, naked, and homeless with no medical care of any kind (save for the aftershave bottles we all apparently dive for in city dumpsters in order to ease the pain and suffering of our tormented existences). Lately I am just ashamed at the speeches of many of our public elected officials. At this point I’m not only ashamed of what they’re saying, I’m ashamed of myself for having possibly participated in voting them into the platforms some of them are misusing so badly. I’m ashamed of their whining, fear-raising, rabble-rousing, class-envy-inspiring, green-eyed-monster-cultivating, ingrate, elitist, shrill, ugly, ungrateful, baseless, and classless complaining. I’m truly embarrassed and ashamed at our national and apparently widespread lack of gratitude if the words of our elected officials are any indicator of what Americans think in general. (I’m hoping their words aren’t accurate indicators–I rather suspect that many, if not most, Americans are considerably more grateful for the benefits we often take for granted in this country than some of our perpetually-complaining, camera-loving elected officials.)

Let’s review, shall we? I live in a country where:

–The per-capita income is 360 percent higher than the world’s average per-capita income

–The average American (man, woman, and child) spends an average of $0.20 per day on cosmetics, perfume, and skin- and hair-care products; over $0.50 a day on jewelry; nearly $3 on furniture and other household goods; over $3 per day on clothing; over $7 a day is spent on automobiles and trucks; and over $9 on food. Compare this to the 56 percent of the world’s population that lives in extreme poverty and who survive on $2 per day total, or less than $730 per year.

–In comparison to the 56% of the world’s population classified as poor, the average poor American has the following advantages:

===In 1995, 41 percent of all “poor” households owned their own homes

===The average home owned by a person classified as “poor” has three bedrooms, one-and-a-half baths, a garage, and a porch or patio

===Over three-quarters of a million “poor” persons own homes worth over $150,000; and nearly 200,000 “poor” persons own homes worth over $300,000

===Only 7.5 percent of “poor” households are overcrowded. Nearly 60 percent have two or more rooms per person

===The average “poor” American has one-third more living space than the average Japanese does and four times as much living space as the average Russian

===Seventy percent of “poor” households own a car; 27 percent own two or more cars

===Ninety-seven percent have a color television–nearly half own two or more televisions

===Two-thirds of “poor” households have air conditioning; by contrast, 30 years ago, only 36 percent of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning

===Despite frequent charges of widespread hunger in the United States, 84 percent of the “poor” report their families have “enough” food to eat; 13 percent state they “sometimes” do not have enough to eat, and 3 percent say they “often” do not have enough to eat

===The average consumption of protein, vitamins, and minerals is virtually the same for poor and middle-class children, and in most cases is well above recommended norms

===Poor children actually consume more meat than do higher-income children and have average protein intakes that are 100 percent above recommended levels

===Most poor children today are in fact super-nourished, growing up to be, on average, one inch taller and ten pounds heavier than the GIs who stormed the beaches of Normandy in World War II

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–Every year, more than half a million women die in pregnancy or childbirth around the world, but less than 1% of these deaths occur in the entire developed world (including the U.S.)

–21% of the globe’s population lives in absolute poverty, or destitution, which is defined as not having the means to afford basic human needs such as clean water, nutrition, health care, clothing, and shelter. Again, please compare this to the living circumstances of the average impoverished American, above.

–There are 2.4 physicians (on average) for every 1000 people in the U.S.; compare this to the country of Afghanistan, where in 2004 there was one medical facility for every 27,000 people, and some centers were responsible for as many as 300,000 people. There are 11 physicians for every 100,000 people in the country, and the per-capita yearly health spending is $28. Compare this to the U.S., which spent $7,290 per-capita on health spending (of which almost 46% was subsidized by the government).

I could go on and on and on…but I think these statistics serve as at least a starting point for rethinking our “woe is me” national conversation, That is, if the whining can be defined as a conversation. Really, I don’t know if it can at this point.

I want to clarify that I bring up these facts not in order to imply that there’s nothing wrong with various systems in our government: denial of the numerous issues we face will get us nowhere. Rather, I am suggesting that as we deal with the legitimate problems we have as a nation, at the same time let’s not forget to be amazed and truly grateful for the many extraordinary, wonderful opportunities and blessings we have available to us as Americans.

I cannot express how grateful I am as an adult female to live in a country where I am not likely to bleed to death in childbirth (this is still one of the leading causes of death for women in many of the developing countries of the world); where I am very likely, no matter how poor I get by American standards, to still have food to eat; and where I have legal rights to my body and my income (another set of facts we American women have become unthinkingly accustomed to…but these are rights that many of the world’s women still don’t possess).

Although the stats in this blog post are intended merely as a starting point, I hope they can serve as a prompt for our long-overdue journey of gratitude to begin, individually and nationally. In all of our national conversations, we would do well to remember the wisdom of Melody Beattie: “Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.”

Let the gratitude begin.