The other day I came across an Instagram post by the gallery Другое дело (‘Another Matter’) in which they point out that culture has been particularly important to people in turbulent times. During yesterday’s Sunday Service at St Andrew’s the chaplain said the same about the ability to feel grateful. He noted that we may find it hard to be thankful when everything is crumbling around us, when many of our hopes and dreams are shattered, but it is particularly important in dark times to try and appreciate all that we have and often take for granted.
It reminded me of a quote from H. G. Wells’s novel The War of the Worlds that I’d picked out for my first year students to discuss during our home reading class last Friday. At the end of Chapter 13 the narrator tells the frightened curate he falls in with while running away from the Martians the following: ‘You are scared out of your wits. What good is religion if it collapses at calamity? Think of what earthquakes and floods, wars and volcanoes, have done before to men. Did you think God had exempted Weybridge?… He is not an insurance agent, man.’ (75 H. G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, Vintage)
Indeed, we tend to notice and complain about bad things that happen to us, on both material and spiritual level, but it is much harder to acknowledge good ones. When we try to stop and think about it, we can start to appreciate just how much we have to be grateful for – our life, our loved ones, our abilities and creativity, and so on. A long time ago I learnt about advice that I later adapted into looking back on your day just before going to bed and trying to remember at least five things you can thank God/the universe for. The chaplain also mentioned this practice as beneficial and, as a side note, said that it helps you fall asleep very quickly – something I can definitely relate to.
Seriously though, the chaplain’s words also reminded me of the beautiful song Спасибо (‘Thank you’) from the album of the same name by the Russian rock singer Zemfira. In it she offers up a thank you for her songs, for her family and herself, for her tears and her lack of sleep, for billions of people. She rounds it off with the words that I can translate as follows: ‘It wasn’t a particularly nice day today, tomorrow will be a good one.’ I find they are in line with common life-affirming sayings that there is light even in darkness and that the darkest hour is before dawn.
By the way, in his sermon the chaplain mentioned that the Russian word ‘спасибо’ stands for ‘God save (me)’, and he finished off by referring to someone say that if ‘thank you’ is the only prayer you ever offer, that is enough.
What about you? Do you find it hard to maintain a grateful attitude during darker times? Do you find it uplifting if you manage to do so?
/Pictures taken in London in January 2018 by me/
