Gratitude

I saw some interesting videos today by some very smart people, one was a psychologist with a very successful book and one was a comedian. Both had more or less the same point. The point was that the many blessings we have today are being taken for granted. The psychologist argued that even though we have more selection and better choices than ever, we feel more regret or remorse after our decisions because we think of all the what-could've-been scenarios. The comedian talked about the miracle of flight and how a passenger was upset by the Internet being down on the flight. He said "How quickly the world owes him something that he only knew existed 10 seconds ago."

Always in the Book of Mormon, the pride cycle begins with materialism. The "costly apparel" that makes people suddenly want to show off their superiority. The world we live in today is very materialistic and divided into classes but we should remember that old saying from Job 1:21 "The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord."

The conclusion that the psychologist had was that the secret to happiness was low expectations and the conclusion that the comedian had was that everything is amazing and everybody's unhappy. My conclusion is that we cannot be fulfilled if we're trying to define ourselves by vain things and we cannot be happy unless we are grateful.