Do you think that caring for one another is something humans are born with? Or is it a capacity we develop? While I'd like to think that caring is an essentially human trait, there seems to be plenty of evidence to the contrary. And so it might not be care itself that is fundamental to human experience, but what care provides.
Maybe caring about each other is less important as a virtue itself and more important for the way it allows us to stay connected to each other. Interdependence is something we're born with. Without help we'd never survive. That help doesn't entirely go away, and neither does our apparent inability to notice it, acknowledge it, and give thanks for it.
We don't all have the same relationship to the act of giving thanks. Some of us have been told our whole lives to be thankful for whatever incidental help we have received. Some of us have been told our whole lives that we have what we deserve, that we earned the help we've been given, or that it was never really help in the first place. Our histories and our losses can make it hard to focus on a single moment of gratitude, but if you've ever felt it, then you know it's not a pain but a joyful and life affirming feeling. Giving thanks isn't like losing something, it's like getting something new. ~ Cory
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