Alec Guinness: A Habit To Be Grateful

Alec Guinness arriving in New York City, October, 1959. Photograph by John Lindsay.


Interview with the Author
By Telephone
1991


I try to make it a habit to be grateful. Tennessee gave you a rosary, which he refashioned perfectly and suitably, but which he kept as a form of prayer, which, to me, is simply a disciplined form of gratitude: You touch a certain bead; you honor a certain person; you acknowledge that person or the traits of that person; you vow to notice or to replicate them in your life. That is prayer. That is gratitude.

I'm not terribly good at rosaries or stations at certain times for certain virtues, but I have been blessed each and every time I notice and acknowledge all that is wonderful in the world, and I must say that this is not done as often as it should be. For most of my life, I did not do it. There is quite enough time in each day and in each life to look at the people and the things and the efforts around us and to express gratitude for them. Then to share them. To pass them on.

We look and we look. We call it searching. All that we need is around us right now. We are more than sufficiently cared for.


© 2013 James Grissom
From Artistic Suicide

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