The Dark Side of Gratitude

Gratitude can be important. It can also be toxic.

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I’ve been thinking a lot about gratitude lately. Specifically, who needs it? Who pays for it? Cui Bono?

Let me back up. Gratitude can be a fine thing; an important thing; a necessary thing. I’ve written in this space before about how grateful I am for so much, most of all my beautiful family. 

But gratitude has a dark side, and I think we need to talk about it. How often is our gratitude, or at least the ways we express it, a way of telling others that they’re our worst-case scenario? When does gratitude read as fear and pity with a side of downward comparison?