Like many Americans, I sometimes buy things when I don’t know what else to do. Today, though, it occurred to me that I should give money to charity, which I did. I gave $25 to Operation 300 (please check it out), and bought a T-shirt. Then I put $50 more into Kiva, which remains my favorite cause. You can’t call it a charity, because all they are doing is brokering no-interest loans to people working hard to improve their own lives. They are doing the job predatory banks will not.
This is a better way to go. Particularly if you look at all the people on Kiva, you see how absurdly easy your life is. I won’t tell you to HTFU, but I would say that with attention and time it becomes easier to realize gratitude on a regular basis, and this is a worthwhile goal. I am pursuing it, and would encourage you to as well.