It was a few weeks after the birthday celebration and the mother constantly had been after her 12 year old daughter to write her “thank you” notes. The relationship between them had become quite strained when the girl finally sat down to “do her duty.” Her first note was to her aunt who lived out of state. The aunt had sent her a pin cushion, a lovely gift, but not on the request list of many 12 year olds. The note was brief. She wrote: “Dear Aunt Mae, thank you for the pin cushion. It’s just what I always wanted - but not very much!”

I suppose the moral to the story is that you can make someone write a “thank you” note. But you can’t make them be really thankful. It won’t be long before we celebrate Thanksgiving Day. By Presidential proclamation, it will be a day set aside for giving tha…