Semusing #22 - Acknowledge

I had noticed, that some of us are very cautious of acknowledging some of the times. An acknowledgement is broadly defined as the acceptance or admittance of the existence or truth but I am referring to the simple act of giving credit or a recognition where it belongs without even having to getting into the elaborate and graceful act of gratitude. For example, a friend does a favor - say, brings us a thoughtful gift. We do a lip service of "thank you" but in our minds or in conversations with others, we look at reasons why we deserve that gift and why the friend must have gotten it for us. We somehow twist it and stretch it and skew it so that it doesn't look as a favor that was conferred upon us. But somehow, magically, we step up onto a rung of entitlement.

There's another way of dodging this feeling of acknowledgement, that is even vile than the one mentioned above. We somehow put the kindness down - "So what if she made this for me? She did it for show off - or it is so easy peasy lemon squeezy that we don't need to even highlight it. What's there in making a whipped creme dessert? It's as easy as one two three - no biggie really!" I hope I am making sense. I get a little disappointed when I see people around me do this to themselves. I say to themselves because when we look for reasons to dodge gratitude, we are in a way putting ourselves down than anybody else.

There's a third prototype of entitlement that I came across. "They have this in abundance. They share it because they are going to waste it anyway. Or "They are riding there anyway. We are not piggybacking per say - cause they aren't stepping out of their way in any sense to accommodate us"

Huh! I wonder why we do this. Is this because it somehow belittles us to accept that someone had done something for us? Or is it because we feel it hurts our egos to acknowledge and give an accolade where it belongs? I don't know, really!

As I age, I realize that very few people have the grace to acknowledge, compliment or give credit where it belongs. It is unfortunate that we let our fragile egos get bigger than their britches and let ourselves bask in the false sense of superiority while we deprive ourselves of the magic of gratitude or the joy we get when we identify and honor the good that we come across.

I know, I am getting old. But, as I turn each page towards the inevitable, I notice that we don't grow up as we grow old. I vow to do the former and avoid the latter....We'll see how that goes!

:-)

Slide courtesy - Google