'I'm grateful'

Dallas Morning News | Mary Jacobs:

"In a Newsweek article about baby boomers turning 60, a divorced mom mulled her financial difficulties after she'd lost her savings in risky high-tech stocks. 'Life,' she says, 'was supposed to be easier.' Oh, really? ... Only an American could have the hubris to make such a stunning pronouncement. Only an American, born after the Depression and spared the horrors of World War II, could sit in her home in an affluent suburb with presumably plenty to eat (or, more likely, too much to eat) and declare, 'Life was supposed to be easier.'"

Mary Jacobs reads way too much into a simple statement. The unnamed mom could have been simply making the point that her life did not turn out as she had planned. She is divorced. She lost her savings in the stock market. She had hoped for a better life. Not that she feels she deserves a better life. Not that she feels entitled. Not that she isn't grateful for all the blessings she does have. Just that she didn't want to end up divorced and broke at 60. Does Mary Jacobs want this for herself?

The point Mary Jacobs is trying to make is a good one. There is much for Americans to be grateful for. But Mary Jacobs should not have picked on this unnamed woman to make her point, taking a single quote out of context to read a lack of gratitude into this woman's character. That lacks compassion. It's just rude. And completely out of place in a column purportedly about being grateful.