The Land of Ungratefulness

Posted by Deborah Chaddock Brown on January 13, 2010 under thank you | 2 Comments to Read

I was at a meeting recently and Candace Benson, owner of Camp Tech, said that she talks to her students about the “Land of Ungratefulness.” 

Are you the Mayor of Ungratefulness?  she asks them.

I loved the visual of a town, a country, an entire land of people who are ungrateful.  It reminds me of  my favorite line from Billy Crystal’s movie City Slickers in which the character played by Daniel Stern, when arguing with his wife says:

“If hate were people, I’D BE CHINA!”

Another amazing word picture that says a lot with few words.

Ungrateful.  How often are we ungrateful of:

• Our customers when they have demands
• Our employees when they do something wrong
• Our boss when they ask too much
• Our industry when it doesn’t respond like we’d hoped
• The little things in life

The economy is tough and we can find ourselves wallowing in the land of the ungrateful.  Perhaps we need to take a deep breath, lift our head from the myriad of everyday tasks – look around and find all that we should be grateful for.

• Repeat customers
• A smile on the UPS carrier’s face
• Our employees who come to work every day, even when (just like us) they’d rather stay in bed and avoid the snowy, cold winter weather
• The opportunity to solve a customer’s problem

I am reminded of the grace my Father said every morning over his Cheerios.  “Thank you, God, for bringing us safely through the night and for the gift of another day.”

hmmm. Each day is a gift for which we should be thankful. 

I believe it is a choice we make – this decision to be ungrateful or thankful.  And our customers, our employees, our vendors and especially our families can easily tell over which land we preside. 

So I ask you:  are you the Mayor of Ungrateful Land or a resident of Thanksgiving-ville?