Gratitude Essay

Imagine finally going to your warm cozy bedroom after a long day in school and finding it infested with mosquitoes. Yes! A colony of uninvited guests had the guts to completely overtake your room. You feel like screaming at them “pick on someone your own size! ” You take a fly swatter and by some miracle you are able to kill all but one lone pesky mosquito. According to Ken Keyes Jr. ’s “Mosquito Principal” chances are you will still be bothered by that one mosquito.

The “Mosquito Principal” states: If there are 30 mosquitoes, and you exterminate 29 of them, you will not be happy or grateful that you were able to get rid of almost all of them rather you will on edge until you see that one mosquito squished under the insole of your shoe. Similarly, if you have 29 out of 30 things necessary to make you content, you may think that you will be satisfied and grateful to have almost everything that you want, but because of the mosquito principle however, you are likely to be unhappy, because your mind will focus on the one remaining lack.

This is the complete and unadulterated antithesis of gratitude.

Gratitude by definition states that one should be thankful for any good that has been given to him or her regardless of the quality or quantity of goodness. When we focus on what we have we realize how much there is to be grateful for. When we focus on what we are missing it is impossible to be grateful because you can’t appreciate something you don’t have. The 21st century ideals completely contradict that of gratitude. The city streets scream out the ideals of entitlement. You are entitled to only the best, the top, the newest and you can’t be satisfied with anything less.

There is a quote that goes, “Today’s better will always be bested by tomorrows better yet. ” This means whatever you have is never enough. Face it, your new iPod nano 5th generation that was once the top on the market will soon be bested by the Nano 10th generation. “Good morning America”! All they did was change the shape and add a few new time wasting gadgets. This means your cool iPod that you said was all you needed to give you happiness will now have to go the way of the dinosaurs and must be buried in grandma’s attic together with her aged diary and record player.

Why are you unhappy with your old iPod? Not because of what it does but because of what it doesn’t do. * All it does is allow you to look at hundreds of pictures, listen to hundreds of songs, and watch hundreds of movies in seconds but it doesn’t have that essential pimple popping app. Pathetic? Yes! Do we want to fall into this trap? Do we want to listen to the pressures of the media that scream out “Look what you’re missing? ”NO! The only solution to avoid the strong pressures of society is the “Every Breath Principal” or the inverse reciprocal of the “Mosquito Principal.

It states that if you have even one thing you can be thankful. If you can breathe, you can thank. A demonstration of this principal is a true account that occurred in Israel less than a decade ago. Gilad Zar, a 41 year old man, father of eight was driving near Samaria and was shot and severely wounded in the stomach and chest. Things looked bleak, but miraculously he survived and recovered. Sixty seven days later he was driving past the same area and this time was shot dead. At Gilad’s funeral his wife Hugar said something amazing.

She Proclaimed “I’m Grateful to G-d for the two month grace period He gave us to be together. ” Hagar had the choice between the Mosquito Principal and the every breath principle. S he chose the latter. This is gratitude. We live in a world of abundance with so much to be grateful for with only society stopping us. Can we take a moment to step back and reflect on all the good that was given? The possibilities are endless. Take a look at the bright red trees in the fall with their leaves shedding leaving a scarlet carpet on the green grass below.

Discover the cold white snowflakes each with a pattern of its own together creating a fantastic winter wonderland experience, you can feel it. Sense the spring. Hear the birds chirp. Smell the morning dew. See the flowers beginning to bud. We don’t have to work for these blessings and yet they surround us. Don’t just walk around like a robot, live life. Open your eyes. Open your ears. Open your hearts and minds to appreciate the gifts that are in your world- our world and show gratitude to the One who gave it to you.

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