We hear an awful lot about gratitude. Be grateful for your life. Be grateful for your life. But I don’t buy it. I don’t think most people are truly grateful at all.
We’ve had far too many years of affluence and of peace. Certainly, with young people, they’ve never seen any conflict whatsoever. Life’s pretty good. The belly is full. The bed, if it’s made at all, is made by someone else.
The person is not necessarily very tested academically when it comes to going to school. So this concept of gratitude kind of flies out the window. It goes by the wayside. It’s not real for most people. But I think we should reflect and realize that, gosh, I’m lucky to be alive.
And more importantly, I’m lucky to be me. I’m not you or my father or my brother or my sister or anyone else. I’m me. There’s no one like me. There never has been and there never will be.
But of course, so what? That’s the caveat, isn’t it? So what if I don’t work on me? If I don’t work on me. And, of course, there is a distinction between humility and modesty.
I can be humble before the face of God as is said. But when I have personal power, I don’t have to display it to you. I can be modest. I can be modest before the society. Small story.
Many years ago, I went to school in Poland, and Poland at the time was still behind the iron curtain. When you cross the border between east and west, in this case, I crossed the border in East Germany and then in West Berlin and then in East Berlin and then once again in East Germany into Poland. And at the border, there were police dogs, German shepherds, barking and screeching with their gnashing teeth, and real soldiers with real machine guns. And they screamed at you, passport, as they opened the train door. Terrifying experience for someone who’s never been subjected to such a display of power.
So, eventually, I got into Poland, and Poland was an isolated gem, if you will. It had stopped maturing in 1939 when the war began. So it was the same charming country that it was prior to World War 2. You still kiss the hand of a woman if you met your social equal or above, and people overall were very congenial, very, very nice. But the bonus was that your money, meaning Western money, was worth 20 to 40 times more when it came to purchasing power than was the local Polish currency.
So you literally could have dinner for $5, 4 people with wine, good dinner, 1st class dinner, etcetera, etcetera. So very quickly, you became rich in your own mind. And I did things like, I had a girlfriend. I bought her a bicycle, which was extremely expensive for the young woman as she was a student. And I think my friend’s brother got married, and I bought him at color television.
I mean, you were just giving without thought. So there was no place here for humility or for that matter for modesty. You were just giving, just giving. So I was in Warsaw, went for dinner. Was playing and the dinner was fabulous.
I was with a friend of mine, and he went off home. And I decided to go for a walk before I went back to the home of the friends of my parents. So I was walking along and crunching in the snow, etcetera, etcetera, and I passed by this church. And outside the church now this is cold. Maybe with the wind chill, minus 40, 50 degrees.
Cold. Gosh. Now as I was passed by this church, and there was an old woman outside the church. Now people really didn’t beg in Poland, and they probably still don’t, to be honest. But people do stand outside churches that are poor and expect alms, expect some reward.
So I’m feeling pretty good. Had a glass of wine in me and all that, and I reached in my pocket and I didn’t have small money. I only had a 1,000 or note, which for the woman was a month’s salary. And I gave it to the woman, Not even thinking anything at all. Not I’m great.
I’m a prince. I’m god. Nothing. Just gave it without thought. And the woman was so stunned that she reached out and she kissed my hand.
And she did it so quickly, I didn’t have time to remove my glove. And I never forgot this experience because here was a situation of giving without thought. I expected nothing in return because it had come too quickly. I didn’t think, oh, you’re going to say, Leon, you’re such a fabulous human being. Thank you so very much.
Nothing at all. I just gave thoughtlessly. And in a sense, that’s the ideal giving, isn’t it? You give without the thought of any return. Much like when your mom kisses you on the cheek, she expects nothing back.
It’s just an expression of pure love, pure humility in that sense. So I guess we could say that humility is associated with something spiritual, perhaps with God, and modesty is associated with my personal power. When I gain power, when I gain wealth, I don’t have to show it to you. I don’t have to show you that I’m a fortunate and lucky man. I am fortunate and lucky.
And then when I awake in the morning, I can express gratitude. Gratitude for being alive. Gratitude that my bed is warm. My home is clean. There is no war.
I have people around me who love me, who think well of me, and I can go forward and help society in life. And you know what they say. You know what they say. Critical thinking is necessary to truly appreciate how fortunate each of us actually is, and critical thinking is great. Truly great. You take care. God bless. Bye bye.