Hey! Did you see that article in Student Life the Friday before Thanksgiving break (“Editorial Board Thanksgiving,” Nov. 17, 2006)? Wasn’t it nice that they decided to focus on some positive things about life here in preparation for the holiday we celebrate in honor of all the luck we have had in life and of everything for which we should be grateful? Gosh, that StudLife. What a bunch.
I’m being sarcastic. Maybe you noticed that for each and every point of thankfulness there was a thing to be unthankful for. I may not be a math major over here, but I do believe that equals out to an unwavering zero of thankfulness. Granted, that’s higher than most people achieve on an average day. But on the one day of the year that Editorial Boards decide to be openly grateful for stuff, you’d think they could do better than that. I guess it’s necessary to never let down your guard; the world sucks, right, and you can’t let people forget it. Just because it’s Thanksgiving doesn’t mean that you have to be happy with what you have.
I hate to be positive, but my take on the matter is that people are a tad too negative sometimes. Editorial Boards everywhere focus on what sucks. They would, of course, be out of a job if their motto became, “We’re satisfied because everything is pretty decent these days,” but they would also not be such whiny jerks. Nonetheless, I guess we can accept the fact that published words have to be so combative and liberal and verbally blind to any well-established good in the world, because thankfulness doesn’t sell. But that does not give normal people an excuse to be negative, nor does it give StudLife permission to qualify every positive remark they make with an assurance that they are not satisfied.
It’s clear that people aren’t satisfied. That’s what the Editorial Boards are there for. Therefore, you personally need not have an abundantly negative outlook on life. In conversation, hints need not be un-subtley dropped that you disagree with the way the country is going, or with the general thought of conservative society, or with squirrels. Maybe it’s nice that we even can say that, or that we aren’t being physically forced into all-out slavery or that they are cute and solve the nut problem. You’re only going to be unhappy if you focus on just the negative.
Student Life may have been semi-comical in their approach to their Thanksgiving article, but I don’t care. When you’re being thankful, don’t be a cynical anti-holiday punk and destroy any remnant of authenticity still left in the practice. Not every particle of life is to be devoted to progress. Like anyone must be able to do to be happy, sometimes you have to look back on the progress you’ve made and the things you’ve been given by other people who have made progress. There’s no use doing anything ever if you’re not going to enjoy it for at least two seconds along the way.
It’s a bit macrocosmic, I’d say, but I wonder how many times mankind has stepped back to say, “Wow, we sure have raised the quality of life of a huge percentage of the human population. I’d like to be grateful for that. And sure, not everyone has what they need, and life is really bad for some people, but I’m going to take this second out of my life to just be grateful that at least someone, somewhere, has been able to sleep on a warm bed at night and get up in the morning and make himself an onion and cheese omelet on a functioning stove while looking at snow that, in fact, he thinks is pretty.” Probably not often, I think.
But yes, the Editorial Boards may continue to complain and be the essence of a progressive society, etc., etc., but let’s at least look behind us every once in a while and be grateful that life sucks just a little bit less than it did before. It’s like they say: complaining is nice, but sometimes you ought to rest on your laurels for a bit, too.
Dennis is a freshman in Arts & Sciences. He can be reached via e-mail at [email protected].