A short, single-speaker YouTube talk (Dr. Arthur Brooks) arguing that gratitude neutralizes contempt. The speaker advises intentionally focusing on what is good about one’s country, family, and marriage, illustrates the practice with magician Howard Thurston’s gratitude mantra, and frames gratitude as a missional practice that can inspire others to love even their enemies.
Gratitude neutralizes contempt. It's like pouring water on flames. Gratitude stands up to our natural evolutionary proclivity to be ungrateful wretches. When you think consciously about the reasons that you're grateful to live in your country, to be in your family, to be in your marriage, I know it's not perfect. I know, I know, I know, I know. But when you focus on the things that actually are good and are grateful for them, your contempt will evaporate. It just will. Howard Thurston, the most famous magician of the 1920s, turns out all his tricks were pretty conventional. But he loved his audience. He was in love with his audience, and his audience responded. They wanted to go because they could tell. He started with a little mantra in his dressing room where he said, I am grateful because these people come to see me. They make it possible for me to make my living in a very agreeable way. I'm going to give them the very best I possibly can. He would say to himself over and over and over, I love my audience. I love my audience. I'm grateful for my audience. And you can do that every day about your country, about your family, about your marriage, about this world, notwithstanding the disagreements that we have. If you do that, my friends, you truly are stepping into mission territory. You have. The whole world is a mission, and it needs you to love your enemies and show the joy in your life that comes as a result. So the people will want to be more like you and love their enemies, too.
