KE logo

Grateful Live

 

Apocryphal or not, the story is told of how Pete Townshend’s grandmother, hard of hearing, would query about the names of (rock) bands her grandson liked with the oft-repeated: the who? The Detours changed their name and the rock band The Who was launched.

The Warlocks? Their name took a detour as well to become the Grateful Dead. Instead of a story about an acoustically challenged grandmother, their name change came about when Jerry Garcia, looking for new moniker for the band, opened the dictionary to a random page (Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology and Legend) and in bold print saw the entry: Grateful Dead.

What is the meaning of grateful dead? It is a motif found in many folktales of the kindness of a stranger bestowed upon a dead person who has no relatives available to pay the cost of a proper funeral. The grateful dead are the deceased who, in these folktales, appear in spirit form to repay their benefactor by intervening on their behalf. How far reaching is gratitude? Even death cannot stop gratitude.

Typically, gratitude is seen as that which we are thankful for receiving. We are given advice to reflect on the beauty of life’s gifts, on the small wonders of life, even to cultivate being grateful for useless things. “Truly happy people,” writes Arthur Brooks, “find ways to give thanks for the little, insignificant trifles.” http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/22/opinion/sunday/choose-to-be-grateful-it-will-make-you-happier.html

Perhaps we can look at gratitude from a different angle, gratitude not only about what we receive; the gratitude that we can give. How grateful are we for the opportunity to care, to feel and express our love and compassion, to feel and express our outrage, to bury the dead?

I am so grateful for what I can share. Imagine the thankless existence of isolation, of being totally alone without the ability to give to others, to share love, wisdom or food, to share a joke, a painful suffering, a melody or a caress. I am grateful for you, not grateful to you, is the awareness that without you I could not be my most fulfilled self. This is the gratitude of giving.

0 Comments

Leave a Reply

Avatar placeholder

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Posts

bearded iris

Netzach: Creative Journey

by Melanie Gruenwald   This semester, I am a teaching a new class, Creative Journey through the Sefirot. This course is inspired by Rabbi Adina Allen’s non-profit organization, The Jewish Studio Project, and her book,

counting up in time

Counting Up

by Dr. David Sanders   On June 5th we will be celebrating Kabbalah Experience’s 20th year.  We are counting up to it. In our relationship to an anticipated event, it is our inclination to count

storytelling blog image

We Are All Storytellers: What’s Your Story?

by Melanie Gruenwald We are all storytellers. Once upon a time, I was born. From there, my journey has been shaped by growth, family, study, friendships, love, travel, career, children, loss, and more growth. There’s

knowledge tree, generated by AI * Gemini Generated Image

The Knowledge Tree

by Dr. David Sanders Two years ago, on Wednesday March 22nd, a petition was signed by over 1,000 leading scientists and thought leaders for all Ai labs to take a sabbatical of no less than

creativity and kabbalah- image of hod painting

Creativity and Kabbalah

by Melanie Gruenwald Creativity is one of the most powerful forces in our lives. It fuels our ability to express, to solve problems, and to bring something entirely new into the world. But where does