Gratitude-Stack

Finding the good when everything looks bad.

Gratitude? With all the terrible things going on in the world right now?!

Hello Stackers, I am cartoonist Kyle Bravo, grateful to be here as guest editor this week, and I in no way mean to downplay or ignore the horrors of our time, but I think we’re all getting plenty of that as it is. I know that if I dwell in that dark place for too long it starts to eat me up and wear me down, and it’s harder to stand up to the bad guys in that state.

Gratitude is one of my favorite tools for keeping myself sane. There are many other great tools: therapy, medication, meditation, getting enough sleep, and of course laughing at hilarious cartoons, but gratitude blew my mind when I started to practice it. My natural default seems to be to focus on the negative, but by doing something as simple as keeping a daily gratitude list I can now see just how much good there is in my life, even as rich and mean people wreak their havoc.

Of course gratitude isn't a cure-all. Action is also critical. If we can keep ourselves healthy and sane, and maintain our ability to laugh, maybe eventually we can storm the castle.

In peace, resistance, and hilarity,

Kyle Bravo

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Kendra Allenby

Coffee gets all three spots only when things are very dark, but even when things are bright, it always gets at least one. That's the great thing about an addiction to a mild, legal, mood-altering drug. It makes filling out a gratitude list a breeze.

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Jason Chatfield

I often invoke gratitude using the Stoic ritual of 'Memento Mori' -- It literally translates to "remember (that you have) to die." I always laugh when I see the translation though, because it sounds like something I'd tell Siri to put into my reminders app for 'when I arrive home'. Either way, it keeps me grounded, and ever aware that today could be my last. Or tomorrow. All that is to say, I'm just grateful it wasn't yesterday.

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Ali Soloman

Much like Steve Martin's SNL Holiday Wish, my teenage prayers were largely selfish, always unrequited, and unapologetically randy.

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Lynn Hsu

For the young and tech-reliant, gratitude can often be closely tied to battery life. For my kids, finding an outlet in a public space is like hitting the jackpot. Now, combine that with a cute dog, and it's true love—a modern-day lifesaver.

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Sarah Morrissette

Dogs are truly the best at showing gratitude. Pretty much no matter what, they will show their thankfulness in the form of a madly wagging tail at even the slightest hint of positive attention. If I were a boss, I’d hire only dogs. Dogs that can type.

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Tyson Cole

I'm grateful for giant monsters. They make real problems seem small in comparison, unless your real problems are also giant monsters.

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Navied Mahdavian

Personally, I like weddings. And ever since I moved to a small town in rural America, and then a slightly bigger city in rural America, and then again to a slightly smaller city in the U.K., I've been dying to get invited to one. Free drinks, the music stylings of Abba, an awkward conversation with uncle Steve? Sign me up. It's estimated that there are 42 million weddings a year globally. That's 115,000 parties a day I haven't been invited to.

Not that I'm counting.

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Michael Litwak

The grass is always browner!

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But wait, there’s more!

• Kyle Bravo has a Substack and a Patreon.

• Check out Navied’s critically acclaimed graphic memoir, This Country: Searching for Home in (Very) Rural America.

• Jason Chatfield has a new Substack about making art called Process Junkie! And Subscribe to Jason’s regular weekly Substack at NewYorkCartoons.com

• Check out Ali's book: I Love(ish) NYC: Tales of City Life.

• Sarah Morissette also makes paintings which you can see here @morrissette_paintings.

• Michael Litwak's movie 'Molli and Max in the Future' is available to stream for free on Amazon Prime! You can find more of his work here.