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Written by Jeremy David Engels
Sherwin Early Career Professor in the Rock Ethics
Institute, and Associate Professor of Communication
Arts and Sciences, Pennsylvania State University

with yours and with everyone else’s. gratitude because I grew up with asthma, and I know how hard it can be
Gratitude authors, who urge us to focus on the debts we owe to others, to breathe polluted air. I need not feel indebted to anyone for this clean
are reminding us of this fact. I, however, argue in “The Art of Gratitude” air. Clean air is not a gift. I am grateful because clean air is necessary for life.
that the rhetoric of the debt of gratitude sets us down a dangerous road. Same is true for clean water. There is currently, however, a potentially grave
The trouble is that the value of our relationships cannot be calculated with challenge to clean water in Centre County, Pennsylvania, where I live.
numbers on the page, and trying to do so might make us miss out on what Looking through grateful eyes, attuned to the support necessary to live and
is most important. thrive, I can recognize a threat to clean water as a personal threat. Though it
Take, for example, a recent gift I received – of a nice aluminum water bottle. is personal, it cannot be remedied alone. I must reach out to others who will
A friend said that she saw it and thought of me. Of course, I thanked her. But also be affected, so that we can act together to manage it.
rather than immediately calculate the cost of the gift and determine how I The takeaway of my book is that indebtedness is not the only way to
would repay her, I asked: “Why did you choose a water bottle?” relate. Examples like these prove that all of us are deeply dependent
She told me where she grew up in the United States, she did not have upon the material support of the earth, and that also speaks to our
access to clean water. I travel a lot, and she wanted me to take clean water interconnectedness.
with me wherever I went. Moreover, she hoped that it would help to cut My resolution this year is therefore to practice the art of gratitude by
down on plastic bottle waste, because, she said, we all share this planet. imagining my life, and the world in which I live, as an opportunity, not a
I might have missed all of this had I only pondered on how best to repay debt. I resolve to focus on what is necessary, and to work together with
it. Instead, this gift prompted a conversation that reminded me of our others to make it possible for all to live and to live well, because we live
fundamental interconnectedness. My actions, she was saying, impacted together. I hope that you will join me.
her life, just as her actions impacted my own.
This interconnected world This article was originally published on
It is crucial to recognize that our daily practices of gratitude have broader
social and political implications.
Say I feel gratitude for access to clean air in Central Pennsylvania. I feel this

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