Welcome to The Little Things culture talk.
Our topic is “Ingratitude”.
What is Ingratitude?
Ingratitude is a discreditable lack of gratitude and inversely; gratitude means readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness
Let’s start with a story today.
A Lawyer in one of the metropolitan cities in Nigeria had someone who worked for Him; more like a Housekeeper.
Now let’s call this Lawyer- Paul
The Housekeeper’s job was to clean the house, do the laundry and all of that.
I need to mention that at the time, Paul was not yet married.
Aside from the Housekeeper, He equally had a Gardener working for Him.
Now this Lawyer was just a generous fellow and He’d often dole-out money to the Housekeeper and Gardener, aside from their monthly salary
The Gardener will collect the money and act like it is His right to receive the money, while the Housekeeper will always express His profound gratitude, to the point that His Boss will tell Him not to thank him again.
In that case, the Housekeeper got His Wife on the phone with Paul to thank Him for his act of kindness
This got the Lawyer elated and He gave the Housekeeper even more money and a lot of clothes, whilst the Gardener did not enjoy such gestures
We live in a dispensation; especially in Africa where people have a deep entitlement mentality and this breeds ingratitude
This plague known as “ingratitude” is the reason a 40-year old boy… that’s right I said 40-year old boy and not man will still be taking solace in His Parents house and rather than contribute meaningfully to the home; He’d become a truant in the neighbourhood and a thorn in their flesh
It is the reason why a lot of people believe in hand-me-downs, rather than going to work for their own. Even with the hand-me-downs, they will complain that it is not enough
Ingratitude is deeper than we have thought and we all need to make a quality decision to be thankful to God, parents, benefactors and human beings in general when they do anything good for us… no matter how little it may seem