Grateful

Danny Elfman once asked the musical question, "Now is that gratitude?" This is the thought that has been rolling around my head ever since I woke up this morning and my wife asked me, "What are you thankful for?" I winced and pulled the covers back over my head and mumbled something about being thankful for the fact that I don't have to wake up every morning with some platitude of thanks.
And then we had a little conversation about the nature of thanks. She suggested that saying thanks was the expression of happiness running over. Once you're stuffed full of happy, you're bound to burst if you don't tell someone how thankful you are. Otherwise, I suppose, one might just explode. And that wouldn't be so happy.
So I spent some time reflecting on what I was thankful for, and I started a thesaurus exercise that put me at gratitude. I believe that gratitude is a little different than thanks. Gratitude stems from relief, rather than pure joy. I am grateful for dinnertime, but I am thankful when it is pork chops glazed with orange juice and brown sugar. I am grateful for Bruce Springsteen, but I am thankful for "Cadillac Ranch". I am grateful for recess, but I am thankful for vacation. Gratitude comes from the Latin gratis, meaning "free". Thanks comes from Proto-Indo-European "tong-" to think, feel. It's that intersection between thinking and feeling that makes us say "thank you". I'm grateful on most any given day, but today I am full of thanks.