Is it wars and genocide that dominate our lives, or is it our nihilistic consciousness that produces them? How have we lost the ability to feel grateful for the human process of the past five thousand years?
In just the last century, human development has been exponential. Medicine, communication, transportation, food production, energy, housing—every dimension of life has been transformed in ways our ancestors could never have imagined. Yet in the wealthiest countries, suicide and depression are soaring. What are we missing?
Perhaps we feel that meaning can only be found in survival, as if we must destroy everything before reconnecting with our most elemental selves. But this is a false return. The real connection comes when we recognize ourselves as part of a larger continuity: the extension of our parents and their parents before them, the inheritors of countless generations who have built and struggled so that we may live at this level of knowledge, interconnection, and possibility.
To be grateful is not a sentimental gesture. It is an acknowledgment of responsibility. Gratefulness places us in the human process: aware of what we have received, ready to move it forward. Without it, we drift in complaint and despair. With it, we gain the strength to face what is unresolved and the clarity to decide what must be addressed first.
Imagine if nations embodied this spirit. If Israel, instead of framing its existence in permanent insecurity, could be grateful for the opportunity granted by the international community and act as a state among neighbors. If Ukraine, situated historically between Europe and Russia, could see its place as a bridge rather than a battlefield. If the United States recognized that its prosperity was not an accident but the fruit of global migration, shared research, and collective human effort—and responded by sharing knowledge and resources instead of hoarding them. It is no coincidence that the headquarters of the United Nations was placed in New York: a city built by the world, hosting an institution meant for the world. That choice itself is an illustration of humanity’s interdependence and contribution. If corporations, grateful for their place in society, ensured that benefits and innovations flowed to all rather than a few.
There is no more empowering sentiment than to recognize the contribution of others in one’s own life. To live in gratefulness is to be predisposed to love the reality we are building together, and to feel the duty of passing it on, expanded and dignified, to those who will follow.
