Thankful Thursday #9

This Thursday I am thankful for gratitude and thanks. Does this sound strange? Well, let me tell you about three short conversations I had this week.

Dana, a young woman who approached me about five years ago to pick my brain on language learning and over the years came back for more information, finished her PhD and passed her dissertation this past week. During the five years between start and finish, she has helped me out with all sorts of projects related to her dissertation topic. She was a joy to have in my life -- I love to see the new generation taking on the tasks of the current generation, to come to know well those who will one day be replacing us "fixtures" of the profession. And then there were those tasks, including book editing, that I just did not have time for and she stepped forward and helped with. What a blessing! Well, two days ago, she sent me a thank you note! In it, she included a copy of the introduction to her dissertation in which she acknowledges my contribution to her work, something that is typically done, but she goes on to express an embarrassing amount of gratitude. It made me do a quick assessment of whether I have adequately thanked those who have helped me in my career. And that answer is? Yes, in a few cases. No, in too many cases, unfortunately in some cases where the person is no longer alive. Lesson: remember to thank everyone for everything, even the little stuff because we do not know when it will become big stuff.

Randa (one of the leading professors in my field) sent me a letter out of the blue thanking me for helping a couple of her grad students and for mentoring her. Mentoring her? I facilitated a few consultations for her that she herself was able to parlay into more consultations because of her own competence and what she is able to give to a client. I wrote a letter of reference for her current position, but she would have been selected for the position without my reference; she was a perfect match for the job. I was stunned that she would think that she owed me any debt of gratitude. Au contraire, I am grateful to her for the co-publications, including one that won the best publication of 2003 award, including the journal issue that we co-edited that contains some of the most cited articles in the field in the last ten years. I am grateful that she joined me in making presentations at several training workshops in other countries and thus made the training richer. So, I read her note with surprise. I hadad never known she looked at me in this way; I do not look at me in this way. I am simply grateful to have cut my teeth together with her and to have learned a number of things from her. Lesson: remember to say thank you to those we work with even if the work is mutually beneficial and mathemagenic.

Yesterday, in walking to a meeting, I passed an employee, working in another division, who knows V, one of the junior managers in my division. V was faring poorly in his previous division, and, knowing his capability, I brought him into my division as long as he met my conditions: no drinking at hours that would lead to hangovers at work and cleaning up his disheveled look to give the appearance of a manager engaged with his employees. Of his actual ability to engage, I had no doubt. I had worked with him before, and he takes care of his employees -- as long as he is not around the bottle. V really wanted to work for me again, so he agreed. He got a haircut and some new suits. He brought competence to the workplace. Then he passed out at work. He refused to go to the hospital with the ambulance. He agreed to let his immediate supervisor take him there, but I knew that he would talk the supervisor into dropping him at home. Intuition told me that this would not be the best thing for him, so I asked one of our security guards to go with them and not to leave the hospital until the doctors released V. At midnight, the guard called and asked me if he could go home since the hospital had admitted V. It turns out that he has diabetes and lung cancer. The lung cancer was caught early enough that the surgery completely took care of it. This employee I had run into from V's previous division called out to me and came over, wanting to thank me for taking care of V. "Bez Vas," he said, "on umer by" (he would have died had it not been for you). Lesson: taking a risk on someone is always worth it. While I still work to keep V sober -- and usually he is -- V is now a contributing member of my division rather than the disgruntled, non-contributing, non-team-playing employee that he once was. I am so grateful to God for insisting that I take and keep my current job. If V's former colleague is correct, and likely he is, V would not be alive today. When I wonder why God wanted me in this job, I don't have to think long. I can list a number of reasons. V is one of them.

Three expressions of gratitude in one week? (There were actually at least four, the fourth being from Padre Julio who was back in town on Wednesday, but I will include that information in tomorrow's 7 Quick Takes.) Perhaps God thinks I need some positive feedback to balance out some of the stresses and sadnesses of the past week. If so, then, Lord, please hear this: THANK YOU -- for the kind thoughts coming my way, yes, but more important for the opportunity to have made a small difference in the lives of some of Your people, for trusting me with them, for putting me in a position where I could help them. For that, I am thankful every Thursday -- and Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday!

For what are you grateful this Thursday?

More information about the Thankful Thursday meme can be found at the website of Grace Alone.