I have been listening to
the radio in the car this week. I usually end up with a take away. No, the
universe is not speaking to me, but someone on the airwaves seems to be communicating
directly to me. Sometimes I even have to keep listening to the radio even after
I pull the car into the garage. (My garage only has two sides so I don’t worry
about carbon monoxide.) But the downside is that I don’t have any idea who it was
that said what I found inspiring so I can’t quote names or organizations.
For example, I came in on
the middle of a discussion by an art marketing specialist. The interviewer
asked her the one biggest mistake that artist make in promoting their work. I
held my breath for the answer. Would it be over or under pricing, meaningless
artist statements, or maybe getting drunk at their own opening receptions? No
to all of these. IT WAS NOT SAYING THANK YOU ENOUGH.
Sounds simple, but I
started thinking of all the people I say thank you to and how it is never
enough: Artists involved in SDVAN projects, art gallery and museum directors,
patrons who give donations, writers who report on our SDVAN efforts, masses of
volunteers, our Indian software expert, community leaders who support the arts,
my family and personal friends that help me through moods swings, stress,
ranting, and who feed and walk me and all those people on the radio and their
words of wisdom.
So I researched how to say
thank you. Be sincere, be grateful and be specific. It can be in person, over
the phone, in a text, in an email and don’t forget the classic written note. I could be saying thank you 24 hours a day,
day in and day out. But can one be sincere day in and day out….I know I am
grateful every moment of my life. But sincerity can be exhausting and much
harder to muster if you think you should be grateful but the “gift” was more
trouble than it was worth.
Deep down my mother loves
to get compliment and thanks, but she always shrugs it off as insincere. She
does not think she is worthy because thinking you are worthy is too prideful
and to be resisted.
And who says thank you to
me? Masses do but a lot of what I do is never acknowledged. The thanks is
seeing a worthy project happen and the fun I have in participating. Do we need
to start saying thank you to those who thank us? Do others think that saying
thank you, is a thankless task?
Next on the radio was news
of the drop by 1000 points of the stock market. Echoes of 1929, but the
reassuring words came fast. THE STOCK MARKET IS NOT THE ECONOMY. The Economy is
fine. I am grateful for this viewpoint. Who do I send a thank you note to for
the good night’s sleep I can have tonight?
