RACHEL HELMS

Gratitude can help you overcome difficulties

Cartoonist Ramsey's list of things for which he is grateful does not include the two works for which he was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. In fact, he's thankful for: his first job out of college as a janitor at a high school; a part-time job he had to take in the Great Recession; being diagnosed with melanoma; and people's distrust of him. "Every twist and turn and bump in the road was a blessing," he says. That janitor's job led him to his current wife, the janitor's daughter; being fired from his job enabled him to find a second career in the book illustration business and radio; and being diagnosed with cancer led him to devote himself to raising awareness of the dangers of melanoma, saving hundreds of lives. You could say that those setbacks and ups and downs were the wind that lifted his wings. "There's an apt analogy that if you're going downstream in a canoe and you hit a rock, maybe you'll drown or maybe you'll prop the boat up in another direction." Ramsey says, "If you can prop the boat up in the other direction, that's a blessing."