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Give thanks without ceasing.
Thank you, Fr Reuter!

Give much thanks to everyone you meet: You can afford it!

If you are in the Philippines and subscribe to the pastoral text of Fr Reuter, unlimited text brought to you via your cellphone, as I do – if you don’t, you’re missing much – you will have noticed that the good Father keeps on giving thanks to God for this and that here and there this way and that way yesterday, today and tomorrow. For the list so far, 8 as of yesterday, I now turn to my blogsite http://thereuteralmanac.blogspot.com/, ‘My Reuter Almanac’ and give thanks I thought of and have been doing it:

21 July: ‘Thank you, Lord, for the sounds of life – the child, singing; the mother, calling; the laborer, working.

20 July: ‘Thank you, Lord, for the sound of birds, chirping peacefully in the trees; for the sound of the doggie barking; for the sound of the breeze in the rustling leaves.

19 July: ‘Thank you, Lord, for the morning sounds of life in the streets; men going to work; women going to Church; children going to school.

18 July: ‘Thank you, Lord, for the voice of a friend, for the small sound of someone who loves you, for the cheerful, comforting word.

17 July: ‘Thank you, Lord, for the sound of silence – the deep, peaceful, restful sound of silence; for the sound of music; for the sound of children, laughing.

16 July: ‘Thank you, Lord, for the fresh smell of the grass, especially after the rain; for the clean smell of soap and water; for the smell of incense in the Church.

15 July: ‘Thank you, Lord, for the sweet scent of the flowers; for the smell of breakfast, cooking; for the beautiful, innocent smell of a baby. Image from Rhoracio titled ‘Prokop giving thanks for the rainbow (flickr.com/).

14 July: ‘Thank you, Lord, for the breath of life – to be able to fill my lungs with beautiful fresh air, to be able to breathe in, and to breathe out.

That’s a lot of thank yous. And that’s not a lot of thank yous – it’s not enough. Didn’t St Paul say, ‘Pray without ceasing.’? Then I say, ‘Give thanks without ceasing.’ That’s why in my email, my tagline is ‘I thank, therefore I am.’ That’s also my rewriting of Rene Descartes, who has famously said, ‘I think, therefore I am.’ (Cogito, ergo sum; literally, the Latin means ‘I am thinking, therefore I exist.’ I think, therefore, that Descartes can be credited with the first public thought on existentialism. I think, therefore I am against any such Descarteism or existentialism.)

You complain about the unceasing rain. You want clear skies because you don’t appreciate that the whole heavens rained down on Noah and the Ark for 30 days, do you? Instead, you are much better off if you give thanks that the plants will have their thirst quenched, the parched earth will have its fill of moisture, the empty rivers will have their streams of water, the canals will get rid of your garbage for you. All’s right with the world even if it’s not all right with you.

You complain about the heat. Give thanks that you are not in the Sahara Desert. And if you are in the Sahara Desert? Give thanks that you can still endure it, that you can still give thanks.

You complain about the high price of gasoline. Give thanks that you can afford a car. Me? I give thanks that I can afford a bicycle and I can wear a crash helmet I can buy.

You complain that the price of tomato has gone up. Give thanks that you can still buy fresh tomato, with perhaps not so much pesticide residue in them.

You complain that your children don’t respect you as much as you think they should. Give thanks that you have the patience to suffer some indignity. If you don’t? Give thanks that you have children.

You complain about government officials being corrupt. Can you not give thanks that you can complain about it all? And then give thanks that you can do something about it – and then go ahead and do it – I mean, not simply protest in the streets with your other loud friends. Make sure that you are not one of those who are corrupt, or that you are not one of the corruptors yourself. If you give a ‘tip’ to get away from a ‘minor’ traffic violation, you are corrupting the police. Know that the corruptor is as guilty as the corrupted. If you ‘facilitate’ the approval of a passport, you are corrupting the DFA staff; if you collect ‘commission’ for approving a bid for a government road project, you are corrupting the Department official or a Congressman or someone connected to the Office of the President of the Republic. Before you shout ‘Down with the corrupt!’ look into the mirror first. I give thanks that man invented mirrors.

If you seduce the minds of the innocents with your non-sequiturs, irrelevancies, illogical conclusions about population and God, you are corrupting society. Still I can give thanks that you can corrupt all the people some of the time, you can corrupt some of the people all the time, but you cannot corrupt all the people all the time!

Thank goodness!
Thank Heaven.
Thank Heaven for Little Girls.
Thank Heaven!
Thank you.
Thank you!
Thank-offering.
Thank-you letter.
Thank-you-ma’am.
Thankful.
Thankful Poor, The.
Thankfully.
Thankfulness.
Thanking.
Thanks.
Thanks a million!
Thanks for the Buggy Ride
Thanks in advance.
Thanks to.
Thanks to God.
Thanksworthy.

22 July 2006