Faced with plenty of woes to complain about, many Americans are switching gears and trying to make gratitude their attitude in 2012; while artists such as Barbra Streisand view gratitude as essential in this day and age for both physiological and emotional benefits.
Barbra Joan Streisand turns 70 in 2012. Instead of being blue that she’s no longer a “Funny Girl,” Streisand and others are embracing “gratitude” as the best way to live in today’s hurried culture where everyone seems to be out for No. 1; while complaining more about what they don’t have then what they do have to be grateful for. In turn, Streisand describes “the first bloom on my roses after they’ve been asleep for three months, a wooden floor with the imprint of time in its well-worn dents and the moonlight reflected on the ocean," as simple things that everyone can be happy about. Streisand is also grateful – in her new book “My Passion for Design,” that’s become a popular holiday gift as a classic coffee table book – about society’s need to be grateful for “love and kindness, friendships, being of service, giving back. I’m very grateful for all that has been given to me,” she writes in her book.
Meanwhile, other Americans are also embracing gratitude for the New Year by rejecting all the negatives that the Republican and Tea Party have stated about America. In turn, many Americans want to lift the country up as “One” and not a divided nation that only serves the rich and powerful.
Streisand and others reflect how being thankful benefits you
Barbra Streisand has a lot to be grateful about. For example, she’s the only artist ever to receive Oscar, Tony, Emmy, Grammy, Golden Globe, Directors Guild of America, National Medal of Arts, and Peabody awards, as well as the American Film Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award and the Kennedy Center Honors.
However, Streisand admits in her book “My Passion for Design” -- about designing her California home – that life for celebrities is also difficult because celebrities still have to live in this crazy, mixed-up world of ours.
For instance, Streisand writes that’s it’s difficult to be happy and grateful these days “in this frenetic world we live in; where it seems as if machines are taking over… computers that drop the stock market a thousand points in a matter of minutes, metal detectors, oil-drilling robots.”
In turn, Streisand admits “I don’t pretend to know much, but I do think that technology without consciousness invites disaster.”
“If only our hearts were as evolved as our minds,” she laments.
Why being thankful is better than complaining in 2012
While science has proven that being thankful “has profound physiological and emotional benefits,” there’s also a view from many Americans that outrageous bigotry has no place in America; where “it’s still the land of the free,” said one senior who thinks people should turn away from anger and “be grateful we live in America.”
Such a view is echoed by Jennifer Grant in her new book: “Good Stuff: A Reminiscence of my Father, Cary Grant.”
Jennifer Grant writes that “one of my Dad’s deepest dislikes was witnessing thoughtless behavior. He couldn’t tolerate it in himself or others. When Dad said, ‘Oh, how unkind,’ it reflected his sadness at a person’s lack of consideration. It was an indictment of character.”
In turn, Cary Grant never would complain, wrote his daughter, “because he had so much to be grateful for.”
In the Japanese language there is a term – “on” – with the meaning of “on” being a “sense of gratitude combined with a desire to repay others for what we have been given."
In turn, a senior who says he's lived for "nearly nine decades," stated gratitude is the "best point of view" because it rejects finding something to complain about.
Thus, this senior says a practice of "expressing gratitude each and every day in 2012" is a good thing for both society and yourself because it helps develop an attitude of gratitude "that can be everything when you're down and feeling blue."
Image source of Barbra Streisand from 50 years ago in 1962 when she was 20 after her first appearance on Broadway and her first album, “The Barbra Streisand Album.” Photo courtesy Wikipedia
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