Gratitude – The Basis for Ethics 291chapped hands and inflamed elbows and knees as much as I could—I
preferred to hide away at home than go swimming in the lake with my
contemporaries. I liked the rain, when my skin issues were always nicely
concealed. Hot summer days, however, were often an ordeal. The way I
looked made thinking about ever having a boyfriend who would hold
my hand seem rather utopian. Of course, I was pretty irritated about all
this and I in comparison to others my life seemed unjust and certainly
not a “gift”.
In retrospect, I am grateful for this time that was not always very
easy. I am grateful I had parents who lovingly looked after me, and that
my mother always washed my dressings and cooked recipes with ingre-
dients that even I, as someone allergic to almost everything, was able to
eat. In retrospect, this experience saved me from many things. I might
have developed differently if there had been no health problems. Smok-
ing, for example, has always been taboo, and because I never started, I
was spared the wearisome process of giving it up. Over time, I realized
how much more beautiful it is to get out instead of hiding myself away,
to communicate with others and to live—being a person among peo-
ple—and for this I am not only grateful but truly grateful.
23.2.3 Gratitude in my Professional Life
I have now been working almost eleven years for the U.W. LINSI
Foundation where I am in charge of projects. I was fortunate to be of-
fered this job at an age when starting again in the labour market is seen
as an almost hopeless task for most job seekers. I have been able to learn
a lot and to develop myself further. The feeling of being able, perhaps,
to move something in a better direction because of my involvement
makes me happy and above all grateful. It is fascinating to be dealing
with so many different projects, whether supporting a small cooperative
in a mountain valley in Switzerland in marketing their products, or help-
ing a non-profit housing cooperative in Horgen to construct 55 new co-