say thank you always

on saturday night, i had in mind to blog on the subject of saying thank you but didn’t. then on sunday morning, at mass in church, it so happened that the gospel reading for that day was about thanksgiving.

the gospel story was about jesus curing 10 lepers but only one (and who is a foreigner) came back to thank jesus. the priest’s homily based on this gospel reading was quite interesting.

he said that someone (forgot the name) had found out that the word ‘thank’ actually comes from the word ‘think’, and that someone said that “we do not think, that’s why we do not thank”. i suppose i agree. yes, in this chaotic busy dog-eat-dog world, many people are too busy running around with their own business, therefore they forget to thank.

i am proud to say that from very young, my mother had instilled in me this great lost art of gratitude. the word ‘thank you’ comes so freely from my mother’s lips. once when she got out from a taxi and paid the taxi driver, she said ‘thank you’ to the driver. i was puzzled and commented that it should be the driver who should thanked her for her using his service, so why should she thank him instead? my mum said something i will never forget “there’s no harm to say thank you, even though it’s the person duty to serve you.”

for this reason, everytime i pay bills or buy stamps at post office, i say thank you to the staff at the counter. everytime i do some banking business, i say thank you to the teller. everytime the cashier at the supermarket key in my purchases and gave me my purchases in a bag, i say thank you. everytime i buy a paper and magazine, i say thank you to the seller.

if not, my attitude earlier was “i am here to give them business. they are there to serve me, why should i thank them?”

this brings me to the priest’s homily again. he brought up the subject of human rights. he said these days human rights seems to be the ‘in’ thing as everybody’s been talking about it. “it’s my right to do this and that”, “it’s my right to have this and that” and so on. he said that this had caused people to neglect to utter the word ‘thank you’. true, it may be your right to have this or that but because you feel so strongly about it, you think after having obtain it, it’s your right, so why say thank you. ahhh! you are not thinking right! remember thank comes from think? you don’t think right, that’s why your thank just can’t come out.

another thing the priest pointed out (oops. hope this will not sound like a sermon to you!) was that we often rejoice so much in the gift that we forget to thank the giver. maybe yes at the moment the gift was given to you, but after having the gift and enjoying it, you forget about the giver. it would be good, if you can, after a few days of receiving the gift, call up the giver and thank her/him, telling her/him how much you like the gift and what you had done with it and how the gift enhance your life. believe me, the person will appreciate it and who knows might consider giving another gift again. haha!

of course the priest also bought up the matter of thanking family e.g. children does not thank the parents for having bought them up or husband and wife does not thank each other. well, actually i find that it’s not that we don’t appreciate what our parents/spouse did but it’s just our culture that we do not express our feelings out, therefore saying thank you to family is kind of er… alien. agree?

ok i have talked about thanking friends and family, and now i leave to the last the most important person – the almighty one above or simply god. (ok the atheists or those who believe in the money-god can skip this part.)

the same principles applies actually. for example the part about we often rejoice so much on the gift and we forget the giver. we usually pray to god for petitions, asking this and that but when we obtain the petitions, we tend to forget god… that it was through him that we obtain what we asked, that we should offer up thanksgiving prayer for him. fortunately, i do not encounter many of these kind of people among my friends.

have you notice, for example at the academy or emmy awards, some of the winners, the first person they thank is god? (yes, i know some will mention the parents/spouse as the first person instead!), you know, i was thinking that, now instead of responding “you are welcome” after people thanked me, like for buying them dinner, i should say “thank you god”. why? it is because of god that i have the money to spend! but of course this works better for my fellow christians only.

well, i would not want to go deeper into this subject of thanking god because this post might then really sound like a sermon! but do allow me to end with this one quote from the bible, ok?

“give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (1 Thessalonians 5:18)

for reference: thank you in over 465 languages.