At the peak of his career, Mark Twain received five dollars a word for the magazine articles he wrote. Someone sent Twain a five dollar bill with this note:

"Dear Mr. Twain, please send me a good word." 

On a sheet of paper, Twain responded with one word…thanks. 

Thanks is a good word. It's a good word because being grateful keeps our perspective clear.  When we say thanks we acknowledge that we can't make it on our own.  We're dependent on others. 

Thanks is a good word also because being grateful opens us to happiness and to god.  A sick young woman with a crippling disease was left paralyzed and almost voiceless.  An insensitive social worker asked her one day if she wouldn't just as soon be dead. The girl with radiant face, whispered from her wheelchair, "I would not have missed being alive for anything. I thank god for every minute, even the most impossible ones." 

If you want to give someone a good word, say thanks.