Being Thankful

All last week the Edmonton Journal asked their readers what they were thankful for.  They used the results to create a custom word cloud where the size of a word indicates how frequently it was mentioned.  The result was printed in Monday’s paper and is an interesting study of our true values.

Family is mentioned the most. If you include all the specific family relationships mentioned – father, mom, daughter, grandchildren, son, parents, and so on – family is a huge part of what people are thankful for. Friends was the second most mentioned word. It’s interesting that it’s the people in our lives that we are most grateful for. It’s not the new car, the bigger house, the cottage, the boat, the golf membership, the promotion. Yet many of us are sacrificing quality time with the very people we say we are most thankful for, in pursuit of these material things that aren’t on anyone’s list.
Husband is prominent – larger than kids, home and faith. I though wife would be similar but when I finally found wife, it was so small (in the left hand corner beside strength) that I was shocked. My husband assured me the size of the font says more about the husbands who submitted their ideas than about their wives. I’m not sure how he knows that, but perhaps he said it to promote domestic harmony!

Life, health, children, people, time, help were all mentioned frequently. God is also there in respectable-sized font. I searched for Jesus and finally found him in teeny tiny font between health and parents. I guess God is more popular than Jesus. No other deities or religious figures were mentioned.
Lego is mentioned which makes me think my grandson Nevin was polled. I’m sure that’s what he would say. Cats were also mentioned, but not dogs; coffee but not tea; Sunday but not Monday. People are thankful for hugs, sleep, laughter, music, giving, dance, strength and grace. Practical things were also mentioned: roof, work, home, company.

There are words here that I didn’t expect: cancer, arthritic, frustrations, rehabilitation, tragic, disease, pain. Some of these are small but still, they were the first thing on someone’s list.

Food is mentioned but nothing specific. Not even turkey or stuffing. No one mentioned hot clean water, although I am grateful every day I step into a warm shower. Many people mentioned Canada, Alberta, Edmonton, province, country, and freedom, so the privileges we experience in this land are in some people’s thoughts.

The people who contributed to this word cloud are a small sample, but this exercise says some interesting things about our true values.