Take for granted
The expression I’d like to share with you today is to take something for granted. I almost skipped over it because it’s so common, but I think it’s one you all should know.
There are two real meanings for this one. First: when you take something for granted, you don’t appreciate it, usually because it’s so familiar. You almost can’t imagine the world without it. That is how I used it earlier. We in the western world take for granted the democracies we live in. We sometimes don’t fully appreciate how lucky we are to live in free, open societies because we almost can’t imagine it otherwise.
What else do we sometimes take for granted? We sometimes take our safety and security for granted. I live in a safe part of Chicago and I don’t have to worry about crime or violence near where I live; I sometimes take my safety for granted, since I’ve always lived in a safe neighborhood—really for my whole life. But other parts of this city struggle with crime and violence; for some people, even in my own city, they worry about the safety of their kids when they go to school. So in light of that, I try not to take anything for granted. I try to appreciate and value what it means to live in a safe area. The opposite of taking something for granted, in this sense, is to value it and appreciate it consciously.
Do you think fans of dominant sports teams like Manchester United, the New England Patriots, and the New York Yankees take their teams’ success for granted? Maybe those fans don’t fully appreciate what it’s like to root for a mediocre team for years at a time; they might take winning for granted.
The other slightly different way to use this phrase is to just assume something is true, without thinking hard about it. In the 2016 election in the United States, Hillary Clinton had a big lead in the polls right before Election Day. I think many people took it for granted that she would win, and didn’t vote. They just assumed she would definitely win; they took it for granted. But of course she did not win, so if anyone stayed home because they took her victory for granted, they regret it now.
Thanks for joining us today. Don’t forget—JR and I will be in Mexico City this Saturday, so if you’d like to meet us, send JR a note to [email protected] and we will give you the details. Hope you have a great week, see you right back here in a couple of days.
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