Coincidentally and conveniently, William DeVaughn celebrates his 78th birthday the day after Thanksgiving.  Who is William DeVaughn, and why do we care?  Well, in 1972, he wrote a famous song about the importance of gratitude.  ‘Be Thankful for What You Got’ was a massive hit, selling millions of copies and bringing a measure of fame to the previously unknown singer/songwriter. 

 

The lyrics are both amusing and astute:  ‘You may not drive a great big Cadillac’ … ‘You may not have a car at all’ …‘You may not have a real silk suit’ … ‘Just be thankful for what you’ve got.’  To put it another way: Count your blessings!

 

From a more academic perspective, psychologists have produced reams of research about the importance of being thankful.  One study had people sit down and write only about good things that happened over the previous week, while another group wrote about what annoyed them.  Not surprisingly, the first group felt far better about their lives and even enjoyed better health.

 

Thankfulness is fairly common in the USA and not only on Thanksgiving; a recent Pew Poll found that 9 in 10 Americans feel a sense of gratitude at least occasionally, and 6 in 10 feel it weekly.  Religious people tend to be the most grateful, atheists and agnostics the least.  But there’s another crude measure of gratitude that is not quite so cheery.  The familiar right track/wrong track poll indicates that a majority of Americans believe the country is headed in the wrong direction.  It’s hard to feel overwhelming gratitude if you are among those. 

 

All of us, even those who think the USA is speeding down the wrong track, would be well advised to keep things in perspective.  America, both the idea and the nation, began when life expectancy was around 40, when women routinely died during childbirth, when disease and poverty were constant.  As Thomas Hobbes wrote, most humans endured lives that were ‘solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.’  Hobbes felt this was the natural state of mankind, but all that changed dramatically with a radical idea put forth by some revolutionary thinkers across the ocean.  In just a few centuries, American genius, capitalism, liberty, and free markets gifted the world with miracles that even H.G. Wells could not envision.  The poorest among us today are able to live longer, more prosperous, disease-free lives than the richest kings of ancient Europe and Africa.

 

More than a few Americans, mostly denizens of the far left, feel that the USA is inherently evil and a malignant stain on the world.  Most of the rest of us believe that America remains the single greatest experiment and the mightiest force for good in human history.  We feel blessed to inhabit this incredible nation, and for that we can indeed be grateful.  Not only during the holidays, but every day of our lives.

 

Among many, many other things, we’re grateful to William DeVaughn for writing and recording that song that still gives people great pleasure.  As he crooned 50 years ago:  ‘Just be thankful, yeah, for what you’ve got.’