Appreciation: A Gentle Virtue

Lists of Virtues

Recently our nation's public expressions of appreciation for first responders and medical workers have led me to wonder why appreciation is not included in traditional lists of virtues.

Let me share some thoughts about this, and offer some suggestions in support of appreciation as a virtue.

Virtue is defined in various ways. I think of a virtue as a quality of character and conduct that makes for  good.*

Tradition has provided us with many lists of virtues. Socrates listed justice, liberality, courage, temperance, and truthfulness. Thomas Aquinas listed prudence, justice, temperance, justice, fortitude, faith, hope, and love. Benjamin Franklin assembled long lists of virtues including justice, frugality, and sincerity.

Traditional lists like these express virtues as nouns.

Scouts list their virtues in a different form. 

   
The Boy Scout Law 

A Scout is

   trustworthy

   loyal

   helpful

   friendly

   courteous

   kind

   obedient

   cheerful

   thrifty

   brave

   clean and

   reverent.

Here virtues are expressed as adjectives.

The Girl Scout Law

I will do my best to be

   honest and fair,

   friendly and helpful,

   considerate and caring,

   courageous and strong, and

   responsible for what I say and do,

and to

   respect myself and others,

   respect authority,

   use resources wisely,

   make the world a better place, and

   be a sister to every Girl Scout.

Girl Scouts express their law with verbals—the infinitive to be plus adjectives ("to be honest...")  and with additional infinitives plus objects ("to respect myself and others...)."

It is instructive to compare the differing grammars of these three styles of listing

In the traditional lists of virtues, the nouns—"prudence, "justice..."—are reified and static, abstract and distant.

In contrast, the adjectival virtues of the Boy Scout listing—"trustworthy, loyal..."—are more dynamic and humane.

The Girl Scout listing is personalized ("I will do my best to be..."), confessional ("responsible for what I say and do"), and energizing ("make the world a better place"). Its verbal phrases are vital pledges: "to respect"; "to use"; "to make."

The traditional virtues are all limited by a significant deficiency. With the exception of hope and love, the traditional virtues are without verbal forms. We cannot say "to prudence" or "to justice." But appreciation has the verbal form to appreciate, and this infuses the word with energy.

Certainly a Boy Scout might pledge to be appreciative—an adjective.

But I think that appreciation might find its most cordial welcome among the infinitives and adjectives of a pledge like the Girl Scout Law. As a possible example:

      ...and to

            respect myself,

            appreciate others,

            respect authority,

            etc.

Appreciation as a Virtue

With so many lists of virtues in existence—far more numerous than the three lists I've chosen to mention  here—what might appreciation add?

Appreciation is richer in meanings than we usually pause to consider. The Oxford English Dictionary includes a range of distinct meanings. To appreciate may be

1) to register or take notice: "The brain's occipital lobe appreciates the influence of light upon the retina." 

2) to understand or discern: "Napoleon, appreciating the magnitude of the danger, reigned his horse about."

3) to enhance or elevate: "The price of gold appreciated in today's metals markets."

4) to be grateful for: "I appreciate your kindness."

5) to evaluate or assess: "I appreciate the sacrifice your kindness has cost you." 

We usually associate appreciation with only the final two of these five meanings. In doing so we tend to think of appreciation not as a virtue but as simply good manners. 

All five meanings together, however, can broaden and deepen the concept of appreciation. In particular, I would include appreciation among Christian virtues, which can be illustrated by stories from Jesus's ministry.

1) Jesus takes notice, appreciating needs that are easily overlooked: 

A woman seeking healing "had heard about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, for she said, 'if I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.'  Immediately her hemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, 'Who touched my clothes?' And his disciples said to him, 'You see the crowd pressing in on you; how can you say, "Who touched me?"' But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, fell down before him , and told him the whole truth. He said to her, 'Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.'" (Mark 5:25–34; also Matthew 9:20–22 and Luke 8:43–48)

2) Jesus is discerning, untangling complex ethical issues:

John said to him, "Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him." But Jesus said, "Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us." (Mark 9:38–41; also Luke 9:49–50)  

3) Jesus enhances by elevating humility above presumptions of superiority:

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" He called a child, whom he put among them, and said, "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 18:4; also Mark 9:33–36 and Luke 9:46–48.

4) Jesus is grateful, giving thanks and sharing with others:

He took the seven loaves, and after giving thanks he broke them and gave them to his disciples to distribute; and they distributed them to the crowd. They had also a few small fish; and after blessing them, he ordered that these too should be distributed. (Mark 8:6–7; also Matthew 15:36)

5) Jesus assesses and evaluates the cost of discipleship:

Peter said, "Look, we have left our homes and followed you." And he said to them, "Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not get back very much more in this age, and in the age to come eternal life." (Luke 18:28–30; also Mark 10:28-31)

 

A Gentle Virtue

Over the ages, various philosophical and theological traditions have paired lists of classic virtues with lists of opposing vices: liberality vs. greed; humility vs. pride; and so on. These pairings have never proved consistent or convincing. What the pairings have done, unfortunately, is to frame traditional virtues in terms of stark oppositions.

Our nation is currently acting out these kinds of stark opposition in street demonstrations: right/wrong; true/false; either/or.

We have a welcome exception to these expressions of stark opposition, however, in our public demonstrations of appreciation for frontline workers struggling to subdue COVID-19. These demonstrations of appreciation provoke no opposing demonstrations. Appreciation is a gentle virtue, taking the form of the poster pictured above, rather than storms of stones versus phalanxes of shields. By "gentle" I mean minimally argumentative.

But not all is peace and simplicity. The word "police" on the poster, for example, can give rise to argument and take on a divisive life of its own. Do we demand justice for police or justice for minorities?

To acknowledge specific disagreements does not discredit appreciating. This gentle virtue must be thoughtful, taking careful notice of difficulties; trying to discern possible responses; enhancing chances for peaceable resolution of differences; being grateful for the Mom-and-son poster, at the same time recognizing both the courage and the controversy the poster can represent. In short, we should take care to appreciate appreciation.

In situations of social conflict, we must not expect too much from appreciation. A gentle virtue cannot be expected to disperse street violence, but it can serve as a leaven. Daisies inserted into rifle barrels have been known to exert a calming effect.

On the personal level, it seems to me that words and acts of appreciation seldom result in opposition or disagreement. Appreciative words and acts are virtuous, expressing qualities of character and conduct that make for good.

The biblical book of Proverbs is a thirty-chapter cloudburst of traditional virtues versus vices. For example:

When pride comes, then comes disgrace;

   but wisdom is with the humble.

The integrity of the upright guides them,

   but the crookedness of the treacherous destroys them.

Riches do not profit in the day of wrath,

   but righteousness delivers from death. (Proverbs 11:2–4)

But squarely in the center of this book of dichotomies we find a quiet aphorism:

A gentle answer turns away wrath,

but a harsh word stirs up anger. (Proverbs 15:1)

I believe that in the midst of our harshly stirred-up culture, "We appreciate you" expresses a virtue—gentle, but with power to turn away wrath.

*****

__________

* I'm indebted here to Daniel Harrington and James Keenan, Jesus and Virtue Ethics (Rowman & Littlefield, 2002), p.23.