Gratitude is like humility. It’s a real virtue but it also summons up, at least for me, Uriah Heep and his ilk: that is, silently resentful bootlickers just waiting for their chance to be top dog. Expressions of gratitude can come off as passive aggressive or humblebraggy—you know, I’m just so thankful for being so smart, and so beautiful, and so loved, and so successful.… I have a tic of basically always saying “thank you” if somebody does something for me (like bringing me a cup of coffee), a habit which I was surprised to find can be annoying to people.
Unfortunately it’s too ingrained in me to change so instead I have simply beaten them into submission on this point. (They can thank me later.)
I have a lot to be grateful for in my life! Perhaps nothing more than medical science. Thanks to the magic power of digest…
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