What is “the gratitude particle?” I admit this particular phrase came to me as a result of stories about “the God particle” that are everywhere in the news. The analogy seemed right because just as Cicero pointed out the “parent” role of gratitude in creating all other virtues, scientists point to Higgs boson as having a similar role in creating life throughout the universe.
Years ago Einstein pointed out that without what later became known as the Higgs boson there was no way to account for the origins of matter in what was otherwise a field of energy. There was no “spark” to account for matter – for life as we know it. Hence, the Higgs boson became known among quantum physicists as the “God” particle.
This week CERN scientists announced that they were getting closer to actually seeing the Higgs boson particle, described by Peter Higgs as “a medium - since called the Higgs Field - existing throughout the universe, which gave other particles mass as they passed through it and were brought together by the Higgs boson” (emphasis mine).
In other words, if found, this “angel of the universe” or “God particle” would not only confirm Einstein’s “Standard Model,” it would demonstrate how life (in the form of all matter) after The Big Bang was made possible. As a briefing paper from CERN explains: “Without this mechanism … the universe would be a very different place.... no ordinary matter as we know it, no chemistry, no biology, and no people."
Without getting into the ongoing debate over whether such a finding proves or disproves the existence of God – whether life itself was created ex nihilo out of nothing and with the help of Higgs boson just happened or that life is, in fact, the calculated work of a Supreme Being who trumped all that, a Supreme Being who made the laws of quantum physics that we are only now discovering and proving – I do want to say that as exciting as this development is for science, it is ultimately less important to me than the gratitude particle.
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What is ‘the gratitude particle?”
For me, the gratitude particle refers to small acts of thanks that are given for life and for the goodness in life and that, as a result, inspires in those who witness it a desire to also give thanks as well as to do good in the world. To also recognize, fellow Christians, as Martin Luther did, that gratitude is “The basic Christian attitude” and “the heart of the gospel.” Whether you are giving thanks to someone who loves and supports you, or to a total stranger who helps you, or to a God who you believe makes all things possible, the act of gratitude – the gratitude particle – is how we transform everyday ordinariness into something special and good. It is how we use the energy we have available to us to create not matter per se, but instead to create and to share what matters.
This concept of gratitude is not limited to those who share the Christian faith. The idea of showing gratitude to God is a cornerstone of the Jewish religion and testimony to it is found in Psalms 9 and 30. For Muslims, daily prayer and the holy days of Ramadan are all about giving thanks and showing gratitude to Allah, for as Mohammad recorded in Sura 14 and then later said to his people, “Gratitude for the abundance you have received is the best insurance that the abundance will continue.” Similar sentiments about the importance of gratitude may be located in Hindu, Buddhist, and other religions or in the sacred texts and prayers of other spiritual communities. Truly, the spiritual life as it is practiced throughout the world through the world’s great religions would not be the same without it.
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But the concept of gratitude is also not limited to spiritual beliefs or to living a spiritual life (although studies do reinforce the value of religion in sustaining it). Recent research in “positive psychology” documents conclusively the role of gratitude in relation to overall well being. Consider the following list of benefits of gratitude drawn from a reliable, source-checked wiki:
“Grateful people are happier, less depressed, less stressed, and more satisfied with their lives and social relationships … Grateful people also have higher levels of control of their environments, personal growth, purpose in life, and self acceptance. … Grateful people have more positive ways of coping with the difficulties they experience in life, being more likely to seek support from other people, reinterpreted and grow from the experience, and spend more time planning how to deal with the problem. … Grateful people also have less negative coping strategies, being less likely to try to avoid the problem, deny there is a problem, blame themselves, or cope through substance use. … Gratitude has been said to have one of the strongest links with mental health of any character trait.”
The gratitude particle is, therefore, an undeniable fact. There is a lot of good that comes from simply giving and/or saying “thanks.”
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Please don’t misunderstand what I am saying. I swear this blog post is not a Tim Tebow moment.
For those who may not follow football, Tim Tebow is the current quarterback of the Denver Broncos, a former Heisman trophy winner for the University of Florida, and a devout Christian well known for kneeling during games to “give thanks to God” for touchdowns (as well as all the good things in his life). I’m fine with Tebow, although I do think God has better things to do than determine success in sporting events. Still, as ethnographers have long documented and I can attest, all cultural knowledge – including spiritual knowledge and experience – is local, personal, and contextual. In that way, I appreciate that Tim Tebow’s kneeling on a football field in front of cameras is his way of underscoring that truth about the central role of God and giving thanks to God in his life.
But my blog post is not about Tim Tebow. It is about sharing the gratitude particle that comes not so much from success as it does from a perspective on life that transcends hardship. It is a perspective that Laura Shubert, a mother, a teacher, and a two-time breast cancer survivor, describes this way:
“True gratitude is a fundamental appreciation for life that runs deeper than the ‘name one thing you’re thankful for’ discussion that occurs at the Thanksgiving table. Like optimism and pessimism, gratitude is a matter of perspective.
It’s not uncommon to wallow a bit when we suffer a hardship. It’s easy to slip into a puddle of self-pity. Normal as it may be to perseverate on our pain, it is not a reaction that serves us well.
The more we ruminate on how difficult our life has become, the more we feel singled out in our misery. Everywhere we look, we see people who have been spared our particular struggle. We sink deeper and deeper into a pit of despair.
Gratitude is the key to short-circuiting this downward spiral. However, cultivating gratitude requires a seismic attitudinal shift. Instead of focusing our attention on our losses, we need to turn it to the blessings that remain in our lives.
It’s not always easy to see those little joys, particularly when we’re broken and grieving. Yet even in the face of adversity, we can usually conjure a possibility or two that would increase the weight of our burdens.
Imagining these worst-case scenarios helps us to put our problems in perspective. Recognizing the good that still exists in our lives reframes the gradient of our pain and alleviates the uncomfortable symptoms of feeling sorry for ourselves.
There’s a kernel of truth in the old saying, ‘It could always be worse.’ Practicing gratitude is as simple as using that adage as the lens through which we view our experience.”
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My guess is that Laura Shubert’s perspective is one that inspires others who live and work around her every day. She may not kneel in a public space before cameras but her positive attitude toward life embodies the spirit of gratitude. By appreciating what she has, by appreciating what she is still capable of doing and sharing with others, she reminds us that “it could always be worse” also means that, regardless of what we have suffered, regardless of what we have been through, we have it so much better than we could have it, and indeed so much better than others have it. We should be thankful for that.
I also think Tim Tebow inspires people with his gratitude. He certainly inspires his team. There is no one model for how we should give thanks and there are so many diverse ways that gratitude works in the world. As Cicero’s quote at the beginning of this piece has it, from that parent sense of gratitude comes the offspring of other good tidings toward people.
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So I am proud to say, simply, thank you. I do so kneeling before a God I do not claim to fully understand as part of a deeper mystery that maybe Higgs boson will help us see.
I also do so standing shoulder to shoulder with you, my dear friends and family, readers of this blog, and all those who have used their energies to create and to share what matters with us. Thank you.
And I do so with great humility and love for our caregivers at Four Winds Cancer Center, and to my doctor and new friend, Rohit Sud. Thank you.
Ours is a new life. A “second chance.” We’ve been blessed to receive it. We know we all have so much left to do!
Listen: I know the “gratitude particle” is only a narrative device I invented to move this story along by naming what so many others before me and so many others smarter than me have consistently recorded. Gratitude has consequences. Life giving and life enhancing consequences.
Oh, against a scale of 13.7 billion years and the whole of the universe, the so-christened gratitude particle has smaller consequences than Higgs boson, yes, but on this beautiful but bruised blue planet where words reveal wisdom and how we treat each other as a result matters, it is every bit as meaningful.
So I’m sticking with it. The gratitude particle is real enough for me.
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