I asked around and learned some of the things for which people express gratitude. Whether it’s a person, object, form of entertainment, place, or concept, everyone can be grateful for many things.

While some items on the list might not apply to you, most are items for which we can all be grateful at one time or another in our lives:

People & Relationships

Family
Friends
Good teachers
Role models
My boyfriend
My girlfriend

My parents
My children
Babies
Siblings and cousins
Coaches
Mentors

Family reunions
Engagements and weddings
Pets
Nice wait staff
A kind landlord
High school reunion

Health

Generally good health
The ability to walk
Breathing
My genes
Good hearing and eyesight
A Sound Mind

Safety and Security

Police and Fire Departments
U.S. Military
National Weather Service
Freedom of the press
Freedom of religion
Domestic Privacy

Modern Luxuries

Clean water
Mouth wash
Cars
Public transportation
Air conditioning
Clothes that fit

Washers and dryers
Work at home jobs
Being employed
Book publishers
Financial aid
The ability to own property

Technology

GPS
DVR
Pandora
Computers
Smartphones
The Internet

iTunes
Powerpoint
Photographs

Entertainment

Movies
Broadway shows
ESPN and ESPN2
TV news
Learning Channel
History Channel

Fashion
“Retail therapy”
Xbox, Gameboy
Books
Concerts
Art

Sports

Running
Skiing
Rowing
College basketball
Tennis
Skating rinks

NHL
MLB
NBA
WNBA
Olympics
NFL

Foods

Good food
Mexican food
Sushi
Pizza Fruit
Ice cream
Crunchy peanut butter

Cream cheese
Beer
Tea
Chocolate
Asparagus
Miso soup

Places

The USA
National and state parks
Social scenes
Bars
Whole Foods, Earth Fair, and Trader Joe’s
Costco and Sam’s Club

Coffee shops
Public schools and universities
Swimming pools
The beach and mountains
Shopping malls
Cruise ships

Arboretums
Vancouver
Niagra Falls
NYC

Nature

Pretty weather
The arrival of spring
The arrival of fall
Thanksgiving
Freshly cut flowers
First snow

Concepts

Learning
Formal education
Lessons learned
Experiences
Respect
Ability to change

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So much of the information that we encounter today, especially via the internet, is only partially true, if not completely bogus. As such, I admire the work of selected authors over the past few decades. They remind me to check out what seems to be common knowledge, for the truth the lies beyond it:

Self-help author Denis Waitley observed Albert Einstein always scored quite well in math and science. Some “historians” noted that his top grade of six on a scale of one to six dropped to a level of one from one year to the next, and they arbitrarily assumed he had started to flunk those courses. The school had reversed its grading system, however, to make the highest grade a one instead of a six.

For decades, no one had bothered to examine the original “evidence” leading to the proclamation that Einstein was an academic failure.

Pop Trends

In her book, Backlash, author Susan Faludi told how “pop” market forecasters made a fortune by reviewing popular media, such as newspapers, television, movies and so forth, and then concluding what trends are looming in America. The extreme fallacy with this method of forecasting, Faludi noted, is that it tends to promulgate that which only a handful of editors, publishers and directors believe or perpetrate. No hard data supports the “forecasts.”

One such forecaster was credited with coining the term “cocooning” for the 1980s, where working men and women, particularly women, decided to spend more time in the household. Faludi shows that the assertion has no relationship to U.S. Department Bureau of Labor Statistics that indicated an increase in the number of women in the workforce and in the time each spent outside the home.

Nevertheless, corporations paid hefty sums to be told where we were all headed next. Because many other factors can obscure results, if the predicted “trend” then doesn’t help the corporate customer, it is rarely linked back to the forecaster. Such companies would do better, observed Faludi, to simply consult the U.S. Bureau of the Census, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and other sources that independently collect data, presumably with no bias.

Dastardly Dads?

Faludi also uncovered this: The “fact” that an epidemic of divorced fathers refused to pay child care, which is a falsehood that distorted reality for decades. According to U.S. Census Bureau figures, the great majority of fathers with joint custody of their children – nearly 90% – paid their entire support obligation, in full and on time. Some 80% of fathers with visitation privileges, but not joint custody, paid regularly. Only when the courts deprive fathers of both custody and access do support levels drop to under 50%, the figure mistakenly attributed to all fathers.

Despite the strong correlation between a man’s ability to have joint custody or visitation with his children and his willingness to make regular support payments, most legislators and judges didn’t seem to see it. Their automatic and immediate response in cases of nonpayment was to blame the male, instead of enforcing the man’s right to visit his children and encouraging father-child relationships.

By continuing to make the majority of child custody awards to women, the courts systematically disregarded the role fathers played and all but ensured that the children would have adjustment problems. Even if a man legally wins visitation rights, his ability to visit his kids isn’t guaranteed. Judges don’t often put uncooperative mothers in jail. So, fathers end up going to court repeatedly – a costly venture. Sometimes after many attempts to visit their children, some fathers withhold support payments to force what the courts will not.

The media, charging to no one’s rescue and in search of thirty second sound bites, label such fathers as deadbeat, or worse. Hence, the widespread misconception about the true nature of what’s going on in this critical arena continues even to this day.

Abounded Influence

In his acclaimed 1990 book, Agents of Influence, author Pat Choate debunked the myth that the Japanese, as a whole, significantly contributed to the development of innovation and technology as evidenced by their annual lead in the number of U.S. patents they had filed and obtained. As Choate explained, the Japanese tilted the economic playing field, via the ruthless art of “patent flooding.”

When a U.S. firm, for example, applied for a patent representing an innovation on which the Japanese wanted to capitalize, Japanese firms issued a flurry of patent applications that surrounded the technology at hand. Thus, the original developer or inventor could not market his invention  without getting clearance from the Japanese, who could tie up an invention in the courts simply because they held nuisance patents for a component or contributing element to the major patent.

After decades of such tactics, and with China included as a leading culprit, the U.S. government still has failed to install comprehensive, necessary protections to safeguard the toil and genius of the original American patent applicant. As such, our government has unwittingly contributed to the redistribution of billions of dollars in royalties and revenues to others.

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