Learning to be Grateful

Happiness is one of those states of mind that few people seem to understand. Learning how to be grateful or to show gratitude is a very difficult problem for many people. Have you ever noticed how so many people are simply unable to be happy no matter what the occasion? Is it a state of mind, or is it a disease, an illness?

In truth, we all have to learn to accept ourself for who we are and not compare ourselves with others as much as we do. What has prompted me writing this is the problem that the USA is having with the rest of the world. We, in the USA, take for granted our own lifestyle, and believe that we are due it simply because we have it. The sad truth is that we do not know how other people live at all, and when we do learn of it, we quickly forget as we settle back into our own habits.

I just read a report by the Stratford Group on the Mexican drug cartels, gangs, and murders that are taking place along the border. The famous Falcon Lake murder was covered up and it is believed that a member of the Zeta gang did the murder without permission. So his gang is all upset about this as this has brought the power of the US government down upon the Mexicans to clean up their act as soon as possible. The lead investigator of this case had been murdered, decapitated,and his head sent to the authorities.

Americans are tired of drug cartels and weak Mexicans who cannot provide for themselves in Mexico and who smuggle weaker Mexicans and other central Americans who wish to have a better lifestyle for themselves than they have in Mexico across the border.

Because of the value of the peso to the dollar, the dollar is far richer than the peso, the Mexicans long to get American dollars to spend in Mexico.

Americans do not understand the kind of poverty in which the Mexicans live that drugs are the only means to a rich income that causes them to not just lie, cheat, and steal but to kill brutally law enforcement agents who are acting to help protect Americans from even themselves.

This is a very sad story for both sides of the border. I wonder at how it is that a Mexican can find happiness, gratitude, and joy in a nation which cannot help him to provide for himself. I also wonder at why so many Americans are likewise so unhappy and ungrateful for their largesse and bounty when obviously being so better off than these unhappy neighbors, the Mexicans.

So what is happiness to an American? to a Mexican?

It all depends upon whom you ask, I finally believe. Is happiness related to wealth? ease? comfort? Is misery and unhappiness related only to poverty? Deprivation?

Is it a state of mind? A disease? An illness?