Gratitude With Attitude

Gratitude With Attitude, Ed Charlton (ed.), Bookcraft in Montclair, 2007

This is a diverse group of stories, each only a few pages long, on the subject of gratitude.

A young woman is tired of being set up on blind dates by her well-meaning Aunt Martha, who, one day, finally gets it right. A man who is about to put a bullet in his head gets an out-of-the-blue phone call from a woman he helped several years previously. Her luck has taken a major turn for the better, because of him, and she is calling to say thank you, and to return the favor.

A young girl is a big fan of the '70s band The Bay City Rollers, and she has been looking forward to their
local concert appearance for weeks. Concert day comes, and she comes down with a temperature and can't go. Her father goes to the band's hotel, gets them to autograph their latest album, and dedicate it to her.

On an Earth colony planet, a group of dissenters couldn't take it anymore, and tried to contact Earth to come and get them. They ended up breaking the only means of communication with Earth, and were exiled for life to a far island. Years later, their children ask to be allowed to return to the group (all of the original dissenters are dead). They are allowed to return, but the vote is not unanimous. A young man remembers years of school torture known as junior high gym class. The teacher for gymnastics class was a decent sort who was full of encouragement for all the students. Because of this teacher, he almost liked gym class. Now that he is in college, and home for Thanksgiving, he decides that he will re-visit his old school, and thank the teacher. Everything changes when he reads in the paper that the teacher's entire family was killed in an auto accident.

There are many ways to express gratitude. This well-done bunch of stories has some interesting ones. Anyone looking for a different way to say "Thank you" should start right here.