12, to turn down the amp on his electric guitar. His son has been playing about five years but no more intensely than the last year or so. He’s gotten really good, his father said. He often presents Flaum with lyrics by songwriters that he thinks are well done. Flaum detects a gratefulness in his son that the lyrics exist, because they’re guiding him in his own musical explorations. Mesk, a local photographer who lives with her family in west Buncombe County, has helped her chil-
dren realize thankfulness by exposing them to different people and ways of living. Paraphrasing a famous quote by Mark Twain, she said travel is the antidote to small-mindedness and self-centeredness. “We go on a lot of road trips,” Mesk said. “Like, all over the country.” You learn a lot when you travel, she said. It’s hard to be stuck in your own world when you’re out among the rest of it. Traveling makes you appreciate what you have and helps
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you to appreciate what others have. You see what you have in common. You empathize. And empathy helps build gratitude, she said. “We went to Rosetta’s Kitchen (a restaurant in Asheville) recently with our 14-year-old and we saw that, if you can pay extra for your meal, they put it in a pot for others who don’t have enough to pay to eat there. He suggested we put in $10,” she said. “He’s aware. My boys see things from all different sides instead of one. They dig a bit deeper.”
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