Thankfulness – Part 2
Nov 24th, 2009 by ljkim
On Sunday we mentioned that there are “perspectives” to reality. So if I turn my back to you, you still see “me” but from that perspective you can’t see the expression on my face. From the top you can’t see the bottoms of my feet. From one side you can’t see the other. In fact there is no such thing as a perspective that captures the entire physical reality… This is what makes photography an art: even though it’s the camera that does the hard work of capturing the image, it’s the photographer who chooses the perspective that tells the story…
Whether you are thankful or not really has to do with your perspective. When Deborah Norville was doing her rounds for her book “Thank You Power” she was on a radio talk show, and at the end of her interview the radio host made a mention of a Breast Cancer Awareness walk-a-thon (or something like that), and said off hand “well I guess that’s something you can’t really be thankful for…”
Deborah Norville stopped her and said (my paraphrase): that’s exactly what I’m talking about. If you have breast cancer today you have an enormous amount to be thankful for! Science has made tremendous inroads towards a cure, your chances of survival are higher today than it was a few years ago, and you have millions of people supporting you and working toward a cure… There’s actually LOTS to be thankful for.
Now didn’t the interviewer know that already? Of course she did. These are facts. But she was looking at it from a perspective in which there was nothing to be thankful for…which were also based on facts (i.e. if you have breast cancer, you will suffer, and perhaps die because of it). But that’s not the whole truth – it’s a particular perspective of reality. Another perspective says “we’re all going to die of something or other – but if you have breast cancer, your chances of survival are getting better every day!” There are many other causes of death that you can’t say that about… (the chances of surviving getting hit by a bus are pretty much the same today as they were years ago).
Anyway – this isn’t exactly the Gospel point – but I’m using Norville’s argument to help point you in the direction… In the Gospel point of view you were dying of a disease that afflicts 100% of the world’s population…sin and death. And God has created a cure. Now IF that is part of your reality – then perhaps just being awake would involve a deep profound sense of gratefulness?
Related posts: