Why Gratitude is in the deck
Gratitude sounds like the easy card. It was chosen because it isn’t easy for everyone.
For some players it’s a helpful practice: noticing what went well. For others it’s a pressure. Being told to feel grateful can push pain aside before anyone has heard it.
There’s a third reading that comes from family. A 2025 study from the Philippines by Dioquino and colleagues looks at utang na loob, a debt of gratitude that can last a lifetime. People in the study described it as both pride and burden. In that reading, gratitude isn’t a feeling you have once. It’s something you owe and keep paying.
Read from different places
Put those three readings at one table and the word stops being simple. One person may talk about a teacher. Another may talk about what they still owe a parent. A third may say they’re tired of being told to be thankful.
If you came looking for gratitude conversation starters, this card works as one. It gives the group a word and lets each person bring their own version of it.
Gratitude sits in the Relationships cluster with Duty, Kindness and Family. The debt reading runs straight into Duty.
The other side: Fence
The other side is Fence. It was picked as a physical boundary with neighbors. It sits close to the word Boundaries elsewhere in the deck.
How to play this card
Draw it. Choose a side: Gratitude or Fence. Roll the die. Look at the word from that side.
When someone’s done, a follow-up from the rule card can help: Who else was there?
Keep going
- Kindness · card 46
- Family · card 06
- Respect · card 08
- Thesis: the game · Play online · Research