“I got mine.”

There’s a false, unhealthy cousin of gratitude, that’s best not to fall into.

This gratitude can be selfish, if it’s about looking in at all the riches we have in our gated community-style life. Ah, we have safety, we have money, we have food, and all the problems in the world are other people’s problems. War, starvation, plastic filling our oceans and animals, inequality, far-right politicians taking over, climate crisis—I’m fine ’cause I got mine.

Nope: genuine gratitude is about newly appreciating what we have, and realizing that our privilege must then be composted into service, turned into joy that isn’t just mine, but ours.

~ W.L