Every Problem Is A Nail
Last time (“One Amateur to Another”) I wrote about how CS Lewis’s introduction to his Reflections on the Psalms has helped me to frame more clearly what I’m working on in these Notes From the GratiDude. There are deeper and deeper layers in which to dig, after thinking (as I often do) what else is there to say about living a gratitude-inspired life. He encourages me to continue to be authentic about my own challenges and not try to come off as an expert of some kind. I’m in this, like everyone else. Lewis is clear that these are his reflections rather than lessons or teachings.
Here’s another example (CSL means CS Lewis)
CSL–It may appear to some that I have used the Psalms merely as pegs on which to hang a series of miscellaneous essays. I do not know that it would have done any harm if I had written the book that way, and I shall have no grievance against anyone who reads it that way. But that is not how it was in fact written.
GDUDE–I have thought a lot about this one. What does this idea I’m pondering actually have to do with gratitude? Am I just trying to be clever and somehow force gratitude in at the end because that’s what this whole thing is about? Rumi said “Sell cleverness and buy bewilderment.” Is that what I’m doing or not?”
There’s a scene from Field of Dreams, where Ray Kinsella, the main character played by Kevin Costner, has been doing research in the library because the voice suggested he find the writer Terrence Mann (played by James Earl Jones).
So Ray explains to his wife about all the research he’s been doing and he’s all excited and he understands somehow that this relates to the voice he’s been hearing in the cornfield and his wife says to him “Yeah but what’s it got to do with baseball?” And then Ray goes on to explain that Terrence Mann wrote a story about his father, using the name of his father, and that he also loved baseball.
So the question The GratiDude’s mind, naturally and organically transmutes into “What’s it got to do with gratitude?” That’s the question I’ve been hearing and the answer that comes back is “What doesn’t have to do with gratitude?” How does gratitude not relate to every single aspect of life? I know that one has to be careful about statements like that, because your brain will work hard to find an answer. But, for today, I’m letting that stand, more like a challenge. “Go ahead, make my day, find one place you can’t at least attempt gratitude.”
At the risk of being the hammer for which every problem is a nail, I will submit that there isn’t anything in life for which gratitude, or, at least the searching for gratitude, is not relevant, or germane. Sometimes gratitude is hard to feel. Sometimes it’s found obliquely, if not directly. Sometimes it’s a chance missed, rather than an opportunity seized. Sometimes it’s a strikeout rather than a double off the wall. Sometimes it’s in our rearview, already receding without our having reacted to it, rather than straight ahead. In any case, at least seeking for what’s great and asking what’s to be thankful for in any situation is a way to be, a simple practice of saying “Thank you”everywhere.
