Grateful: The Transformative Power of Giving Thanks by Bass Diana Butler

Author:Bass, Diana Butler [Bass, Diana Butler]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperOne
Published: 2018-04-02T16:00:00+00:00

6

Thankful and Festive

As we travel with gratitude, and share that feeling—like a ripple it spreads across the world.

—LARRY DVOSKIN

W hen I lost my job at the college, I fell into a terrible funk. I did not know what to do with myself, and I had lost friends and colleagues in the midst of it all. Not only had my job disappeared, so had much of my community. Being fired is a bit like being voted off the island. Or being sent into exile.

“You need to get out more,” a friend suggested.

“What should I do?” I replied.

I really did not know. For years, my life had revolved around religion and academics. In the wake of leaving the college, the academic calendar no longer patterned my life. Church was good—my new congregation was welcoming, and I was learning things there and making friends. But being freed from the constraints of evangelical expectations was disconcerting for me. Until my early thirties, my social life was shaped mostly by friendships with other evangelical Christians. I realized that I did not really know many people outside that community, and now they had essentially abandoned me. I had no idea what “secular” people did for fun. I was sheltered. Well, more like bunkered.

“Why not go with me to the wine festival?” she asked. “You like good wine. You’d love it. I promise.”

I timidly agreed.

The festival was a fund-raiser for a local museum, held every year in a grove of live oak and eucalyptus trees. It was, as might be expected, a glorious Santa Barbara day, sunny and warm. Local wineries set up tables and poured generous tastings, and laughter got louder and more raucous with every glass. Strangers mingled and swayed together to the sounds of jazz. For an afternoon, I forgot about the college and everything that had happened there. I met new people, talked about food and wine, and listened to music. People were happy and not obsessed with doctrinal purity or evangelizing the world. Maybe it was the wine, but the day was light and bright and joyful. I really did not know one could enjoy life outside of church. It was everything that my stern evangelical friends warned about, the temptations of Dionysian pleasures. The mystical poet Rumi once said, “Gratitude is the wine of the soul.” Whatever the truth of that, I know a wine festival pointed me toward new paths of gratitude.

It was not, of course, just the wine. It was the festivity itself, of gathering with strangers and sharing food, the sunlight, and enjoying life. I discovered that I lived in a city of festivals, of food and wine and music and theater and art, of cultures and history, of gardens and architecture and good causes. Sure, the weather was beautiful, but the people there seemed to take a particular pleasure in street fairs, parades, and all sorts of public displays of conviviality. Once, I was simply walking by a bookstore, and some street musicians began to play. People who had been strolling by stopped, listened, and started to dance on the sidewalk.

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