Just thinking--Justly?

Engendered perhaps by T-Day...

A. "I'm not as thankful as I should be."

B. "I'm not as thankful as I could be."

There's an infinite divide between these two. "A." is a big tall infinite everlasting order. One must of course presume that: "God Is; and Is a Rewarder of those who diligently seek Him."  If not, then the statement becomes meaningless and all ethics and morals are showpieces to get what we want for ourselves.

"B."is more in the realm of the doable; as it is terminated by the death of the individual.  But is it ever done? The existentialist (non-Kierkegaardian one must hasten to add) would say at death that "IS" was enough.
How satisfying an answer this is--with its hyperautonomous not-accountable assumptions-- I must leave to others to judge. I myself consider it to be a vastly inflated overstatement of an extreme position that fails the reality test even before it proves to be cold comfort to souls committed to the dead of wintery spirituality, if one can call it that. (Another extreme position but quite popular at the moment--to be "spiritual" with no content whatsoever.)

So there will always be, on this plane, "coulda-shoulda-woulda," yet  still and always remaining in the realm of the theoretical. Hence its pernicious and gloomy nature, better suited for extended guilt trip than for Grace!

The "attitude of gratitude" is currently at low ebb in a culture that is quite worn around the edges, and takes its blessings quite for granted; hence loses them.  People often loudly wonder why such things happen.  The Bible has a thoroughgoing but always unpopular accounting for this, said, "many times, many ways..." Why even gravity alone woud be suffcient to explain a lot of it. Then there's entropy. But what we really tacitly and repeatedly reject is the accountability.  "Life is whatcha get away with."  Which of course requires a life of constant deception. 

We are not only not what we should be or could be, we are not even able to come up to our own standards--no matter how low!!!  It "woulda" take a miracle to get there. And it is not possible to live without standards. As Camus said, "suicide is the only serious philosopical question." If one confines one's self to abstractions that is most certainly true--but really not true for most of us. If we are absurdly inconsistent (to others who judge us, chiefly), that's one thing--but to deny order and law--or the reverse--is not physically possible; any more than "shoulda."

"It is what it is"?  And how would we know?