We all assume that is true, but maybe we should ask Susan Woods or some other mental health professionals if this is actually the case. I know that at times I did get a perverse pleasure in complaining, and I think we can all think of several people who get a lot of mileage out of "being miserable"--to the extent that I chalk it up to a bad habit that you have to consciously work at to break out of. I remember thinking that this was one of the points of the gospel where the man had been waiting to get in the healing pool for like19 or 29 years and Jesus comes along and he tells him how long he's been waiting. Jesus says to him: "do you want to get well?" At some point I realized that there are some people who don't want to get well--they are all the plainitffs in the cases I am defending!!! But seriously, many people get a lot of attention by complaining all the time.

You are right that you have to work at it--being grateful is the key, I think. I am grateful I have a job; I am grateful that I am not sick like the people I am attending, (if I were a nurse); I am grateful that my children are healthy and seem to be leading productive lives; I am grateful to be warm, have a house, to be born an American, etc. You get the picture. And it helps to give up being cynical--I have decided to give up being cynical--it was cute for a while, but it gets very tiresome over the long haul.