Jottings - Slice of life - 431 ( few personal meditations on thankfulness and thanksgiving) Saying Thank you is not easy; I mean, really meaning what one says. The words roll out of our tongue mechanically, casually, a million times in the course of our lives, as an obligation, or as exciting a social contract. We are prone to unconsciously using thank you to maintain a persona. It makes us look cultured, well mannered, decent — civil perhaps. When we say it, we put on a gentle smile, the tone involuntarily becomes warm, mellowed, and ingratiating — giving the words an artificial touch of warmth and a sense of make-believe that the words emanate from the depths of our whole being when it only springs from the shallow depths of our vocal cords as a habitual reflex and nothing more. Half the time, our thank you seem to mean nothing at all except as a ploy to amicably conclude a conversation and move on to something else or cut short an awkward social meeting, or to lull someone int