As promised last weekend, today I’m reviewing Dale Carnegie’s 1944 book How To Stop Worrying And Start Living.
Pretty darn timely. Especially the chapter on Ingratitude.
Next weekend, there’ll be Mothers out there in the blogosphere (and elsewhere) receiving nothing for Mother’s day. There’ll also be kids receiving no thanks for what they did give their Mom. One of us will have sent her dear Mom the heavily hinted at yellow roses and hear that they were delivered at the “wrong” time, right in the middle of her weekly girls gab (which her loving daughter knows is really the exact RIGHT time).
Maybe there’ll be disappointment because gratitude was expected but, as Carnegie points out, “It is natural for people to forget to be grateful; so, if we go around expecting gratitude, we are headed straight for a lot of heartaches.”
He reminds us of the story of Jesus and the ten lepers (only one of the ten was thankful). He tells us of Samuel Leibowitz, a famous criminal lawyer, who saved 78 men from going to the electric chair and didn’t receive a single thank you. Me, I once spent a board meeting begging for a project team member’s desperately needed job and then listened to the same team member complain about working overtime that evening (if he only knew…). Gratitude is a rare thing, an exception, and while it should be celebrated when expressed, it should never be expected.
This book, as our girl Rich Minx stated, is a bit dated (the helpful housewife hints). I saved it for when I was in a fruitie tootie, nothing can get me down, mood. I also wouldn’t recommend giving it to your hubby to read especially if he’s like mine, singing the new Aaron Lines song “Its Cheaper To Keep Her” (Living with a crazy wife beats an empty bank account) at the top of his lungs, pausing only to dedicate it to you. Nopers, better to give him a heavily edited summary.