"Ingratitude, thou marble-hearted fiend, more hideous when you show'st thee in a child than the sea-monster!"
~ King Lear, Shakespeare

'Tis the season for thankfulness! With Thanksgiving just around the corner, what better topic to address than gratitude, more specifically, in the modern world amongst our generation?
Our generation, with its societal and interpersonal relationship, morality, and spirituality concerns, requires greater emphasis on our mental wellness and embracement of gratitude—not solely for individual welfare, but also for guaranteeing a continually flourishing nation and citizenry. Acknowledging the strife of the settlers and their successors in America, compared to the current mortal condition of our generation signals our dire need for greater positivity and thankfulness in life. 

Spool back to September 1620; the Pilgrims came from Plymouth, England on the Mayflower, originally seeking out free land to practice their faiths without persecution, and hopefully stumble upon newfound prosperity. They experienced a treacherous voyage across the Atlantic and painstakingly established a village at Plymouth. They endured a brutal winter that left only half of them alive. To the Pilgrims’ surprise, the arrival of a rejuvenating spring brought Squanto, a Pawtuxet Native American, who helped them create a harmonious relationship with a Native American tribe, a relationship that extended beyond geographic proximity, and became an alliance that lasted for nearly fifty years. 

Persisting to November 1621; the Pilgrims experienced their first successful corn harvest, prompting Governor William Bradford to invite some Native American allies to partake in a three-day-long festival, giving thanks to one another for mutual assistance—what we now know as Thanksgiving.

Triumphantly in 1789, George Washington declared a Thanksgiving, requesting Americans to express their gratitude for their war against Great Britain for their own independence. However, Thanksgiving never became an official national holiday until Abraham Lincoln composed a proclamation, calling upon Americans to request God to "commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife…and heal the wounds of the nation."

America witnessed continual colonization and the eloquent Declaration of Independence leading to the American Revolution granting the freedom to build the nation based upon its marvelous Constitution. Further, somehow the mechanics of the world placed the odds in the American favor to carry out their perceived "Manifest Destiny," despite the blood, sweat, and tears left on those Americans' hands. We became a breeding ground for advancement in all fields; ranging from technological innovations making life easier than ever before, to groundbreaking and passionate artists, writers, and philosophers, and to cultivating one of the greatest economic systems. We have had some of the greatest national defense and aerospace advancements, gaining victories in both world wars, successfully developing nuclear energy, assisting in the conclusion of a historic event as horrific as The Holocaust, avoiding mutually assured destruction in the Cold War, and eventually orbiting in space.  We advanced civil rights for all, including racial minorities, and women, specifically through the first and second waves of feminism, effectively eliminating de jure discrimination of most minorities. We are gradually expanding LGBT rights. And, up to today, we continue to push against a new frontier.

Thus, observing recent history and the present, one thing we can say for certain is: the majority of us should feel blessed.

However, as expected from human nature and its habits of cynicism and egotism, nowadays, we seem to lack gratitude for humanity's progress.

The past couple years has seen havoc such as increases in hate-group activity, even beyond the U.S., to sporadic public shootings, to the rise of groups such as ISIS and their supporters, and even mishandling of life-threatening diseases like Ebola.

If national and international events do not function as sufficient indicators, a glance at our mental health may be a wake-up call.

The Congressional Research Service found, within a twelve-month period, 26.2% of adults experienced mental illnesses. Turn your attention over to adolescents—like many of us—and that value is 40.3%. Illnesses such as ADD, ADHD, clinical anxiety, and depression are frequently diagnosed; oft in instances where observed symptoms are temporary and results of societal and environmental factors. This issue is exacerbated by prescribing dangerous drug combinations, like anti-depressants plus OCD or ADHD drugs, or schizophrenia meds for depression patients, which only deteriorate mental states.

Pharmaceuticals and media have convinced our generation that medicinal and recreational drugs can be beneficial to physical and mental health, when in reality, the use of such drugs from a young age has proven connections to increased chances of developing mental disorders.

The same media has embedded a hierarchal mentality—albeit, not new; pharaohs, viziers, high priests, craftsmen, and peasants ring any bells?—in the minds of adolescents, which we model consistently in our own lives. The television and video games that we have been fed have solidified "us against them," and "there are only winners and losers" thought processes, effectively creating deep divides between all of us, based on superficial traits ranging from gender to interests. We have bolstered idealized images and thoughts of every aspect of humanity, not only appearances, and now hold ourselves and one another to these expectations. We have taken some social media to extremes, and seem addicted to any form of social buzz and bandwagons.
Add to this many youth's hyperawareness of national and international, political, economic, and philosophical/religious turmoil, and we have ourselves quite a beaten, and simultaneously hedonistic and apathetic generation.

Now, whether or not a plethora of us truly have mental illnesses based on chemical imbalances or genetics or if all our flaws are due to nurture is not our focus. The simple fact of people's low morale, stress, decreased inhibitions, and increased tendencies to harm one another in the smallest to largest ways is enough to be alarmed and consider the possibility of our lacking thankfulness for where we are now, as compared to where we could have been.

For this generation to be thoroughly successful, and allow our homeland's prosperity, instead of romanticizing and normalizing mental issues, or praising irrationality and lack of accountability, or arrogantly embracing oppressed-and-unknown-existentially-narcissistic-self-proclaimed-genius inferiority and God complexes, we should be consistently taking the time to count our blessings, and be the generation that values gratitude as both a mental state and virtue.

Realistic optimism and gratitude—much like their evil-doer cousin, negativity—can be contagious; so, have faith in yourself and your positive and intuitive impact on others, and again, 'tis the season for thanksgiving!