Gratitude: a spiritual discipline

Consider this an addition to Erin's gratitude post.
A friend mentioned: "Thanksgiving has been transformed into routine. It's like the general public perks up and thinks, 'Gee, it's Thanksgiving...time to cut the turkey and give thanks that I'm not completely screwed.'" At the thanksgiving eve service where i attend church, what I heard during coffee time in reference to the sermon was just that--and the phrase "attitude of gratitude" used during the sermon seemed to mean we should try to remember to look on the bright side and when life gives us lemons, thank God for the lemonade recipe. This disturbed me.
The Abstract/summary: If we were really in an attitude of gratitude i think we'd get sick of thanking God for all the stuff in our lives, because spiritual disciplines transcend the religious and carry us into the becoming, the becoming more like Christ and more like who God created us to be. at that level of being there's no need for "thanks for the turkey and the opportunity to go to this great school and my friends and my family and the football team," because we're past that and simply living thanks for a) our love of and from God and b) our love of and from our neighbor and the beauty of humanity (God's creation).
When we inhale and exhale that love we won't take stuff for granted, because we'll be so aware of what our neighbor is grateful for (what our poor neighbor, our injured neighbor, our sick neighbor, our lonely neighbor, our hungry neighbor, our numb neighbor are grateful for) that gratitude propels us into service, and service shows us the real meaning of gratitude is, like i said, not all the stuff we have but appreciation of God's love and the beauty of humanity. and that's the root of all that really matters in life, as we seek to love God and love Jesus and love humanity.

The expanded version: (note: --> approximately means "which leads us to think")
Thanksgiving rolls around and we're told to be thankful-->we should be in an attitude of gratitude-->OK so we always try to think about what we have to be grateful for-->start the list...dang it, we have a lot of stuff, everything from i'm thankful i woke up this morning to the sound of the birds to i'm thankful i didn't get in an accident on my way to church to i'm thankful i'm home for thanksgiving to i'm thankful for the bountiful food i'm going to eat, i'm thankful for health, i'm thankful for education, etc. etc.-->wow, i have a lot to be thankful for. --> i wonder about all those people in the world who don't have as much to be thankful for-->like i can list a laundry list like in 10 seconds; how'd i end with so much good stuff in my life?-->i'm starting to feel guilty...in a world where a billion people are food insecure, 37 million of them in my own country...in a world where we can stand by an watch as 400,000 are murdered in acts of genocide...in a world where children are prostituted and women are sold into slavery and rich white men declare war and young soldiers become killers and victims...i sure have a lot to be thankful for and i feel guilty because a)i have all this and b)my life still sucks sometimes and i can't help it --> guilt is never productive if it's not channeled into action immediately, so i begin serving others--> an attitude of service develops --> i discover that just because the poor people smile and have something to teach me about life doesn't mean it's ok that they're poor --> i discover that we're all human --> i discover that God suffers --> anyway i realize lots of things and my attitude of service --> and i come full swing back to gratitude, to being so grateful to God for what should have always been the foundation of my existence: God's love for humanity and my love for humanity --> now i don't need to say, 'thanks for the birds God,' (though i do because they remind me of God); i don't need to say 'thanks for this church, God' (though I do because the church is especially great), etc...i say thanks but i don't need to be reminded to say thanks because deep down, what really makes me who I am is love of and from God and love of and from neighbor, and that's what i'm really grateful for.