thank you

Some say thank you for this but not for that.

Others create an oozy-goozy environment in which they appease some much-loved-and-ill-considered god by saying thank you for"boundless blessings" or something similar.

And still others ignore what deserves their thanks and simply assume that whatever good fortune comes their way -- whatever bit of information or material occurrence -- becomes property which they can claim as original and deserved. Regardless of source, if they know it or own it, then it is theirs.

I guess there are any number of ways of approaching the matter of saying thank you. Whatever the way, I think the koan is worth the price of admission. My own feeling is that one of the inescapable imperatives in life -- an imperative that has nothing to do with either choice or presumptuousness or bending so far over backwards that you fall on your ass -- is to learn to say what cannot be said: Thank you.

However inclined anyone might be to consider the matter of thank-you, still, when getting out of bed in the morning to take a leak, there really is no time to be fiddling around with the realms of thank you. First, I have to take a leak. Then, I have to get to work. Fuck it, man! Thank-you will have to take care of itself. Let the Zen Buddhists get their knickers in a twist with their gasshos and deeeeep meanings ... taking a leak and making a living are no small matters.

"Imperative" is a demanding word -- as if, were you to fail to comply, there would be dire consequences. In calling thank-you an inescapable imperative, I don't mean that. I mean, rather, that water is wet -- it just goes with the territory and no one will get whacked on the nose by some other-worldly rolled up newspaper if they fail to observe the amenities. Thank-you is just the way things are and the sooner anyone tunes in, the more at ease they are likely to be.

Thank you for what? Thank you to whom? If there is no one to thank, how can you say thank you? On the other hand, if there is someone or something to thank, how can you say thank you? What is not thank-you? On the other hand, what is?

This is a world of weird and yet, for all that, still I would call it an inescapable imperative: Thank you.

And for anyone thinking of appending a "thank you" to this post, please consider how far off the mark that might be.