By Judd Matsunaga, Esq.
As a Japanese American and life-long Dodger fan, I couldn’t have been happier that Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto helped the Dodgers win the 2024 World Series championship. After signing a record-shattering $700 million, 10-year contract, Ohtani receives an annual cash payment of $2 million and will take deferred annual payments of $68 million starting in 2035.
I wanted to find something on Shohei for this Thanksgiving article, but since I don’t read or speak Japanese, it’s been very difficult. The best I found was that his father, Toru Ohtani, worked, trained and coached him to constantly get better. I did find, however, a very famous actor who makes comparable income, i.e., $2 million a month, that has quite a bit to say about giving thanks.
Denzel Washington, actor, producer, director, has been regarded as one of the best actors of his generation. His mother, Lennis “Lynne,” was a beauty parlor owner and operator born in Georgia and partly raised in Harlem. His father, Denzel Hayes Washington Sr., was an ordained Pentecostal minister who was also an employee of the New York City Water Department and worked at a local S. Klein department store.
Washington is a member of the West Angeles Church of God in Christ, located in Los Angeles. According to Wikipedia, he has considered becoming a preacher. He stated in 1999, “A part of me still says, ‘Maybe, Denzel, you’re supposed to preach. Maybe you’re still compromising.’ I’ve had an opportunity to play great men and, through their words, to preach. I take what talent I’ve been given seriously, and I want to use it for good.”
Now, if you’re finding it difficult to find things to be grateful for this Thanksgiving, Denzel Washington has some valuable advice. He has posted several motivational (inspirational) speeches online. The following are bits and pieces of the one titled “The Power of Gratitude.”
(www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=WfIazhScLYk)
Every day, life gives us reasons to be thankful. I’m grateful to see another day. No, things aren’t perfect. I don’t have everything I want. But I’m thankful to still be here. Each new day is another chance to live, to contribute and to make a difference. Becoming a human is a rare gift and I am one. I have many good things going for me. And for that, I am grateful.
You are alive against incredible odds. You get to breathe air, watch sunsets and gaze at the night sky. Every morning, I find 10 things to be grateful for before my feet hit the ground. If I’m feeling stressed, I go over my gratitude list because gratitude reduces stress throughout the day. Happiness comes from being grateful.
Too often we focus on what we don’t have instead of appreciating what we do. But we miss them because we’re too busy focusing on what we don’t have, or what didn’t go the way we wanted. We get caught up in comparing our lives to others, and chasing after things that we think will make us happy, and in dwelling on the problems that seem to pile up.
If you live in a state of worry or frustration, your life becomes worry and frustration. Stop letting the challenges define your existence. Once you see life through the lens of gratitude and opportunity, it becomes enjoyable. You get to decide — whether you’ll dwell on problems or see opportunities and be grateful. The moment you shift your focus from what’s lacking to what you already have the entire atmosphere of your life begins to change.
Gratitude is one of the most powerful forces that can shift your entire perspective on life. When you choose to embrace gratitude, you are making a decision to see the world through a different lens. Gratitude, i.e., that simple act of acknowledging the good in your life, can change everything. It doesn’t remove the difficulties, but it transforms the way you deal with them. It helps you focus not on what’s wrong but on what’s right.
When you allow yourself to focus on even the smallest glimmer of hope or joy, e.g., something as simple as a breath, a memory, or a loved one, you suddenly find the strength to keep going. Gratitude doesn’t erase the pain, but it makes it bearable because it shifts your perspective. It pulls your focus away from the defeat and redirects it toward the things that are still standing, still steady, still worth fighting for.
When you practice gratitude you aren’t giving in to defeat. You’re choosing to stand tall in the midst of chaos. You’re choosing to believe that there’s more to your story than the current chapter of struggle. Gratitude cultivates resilience because it reminds you of the good even when you’re surrounded by bad. It gives you a reason to keep moving forward when every instinct is telling you to stop.
Gratitude cultivates resilience because it refuses to let the difficulties of life define you. It reminds you that there’s always something to be thankful for, something to fight for, something to hold on to. It’s a mindset that says, yes, this is hard but I’m still here. Yes, I’ve been knocked down, but I will rise again. In that mindset you find the strength to keep going, to keep pushing, and to keep fighting.
In the face of adversity, gratitude changes the conversation in your mind. Instead of “Why me?” it becomes “What am I still grateful for.?” It may start small like a flicker of light in the darkness, but with each acknowledgment of the good in your life it grows stronger. That flicker becomes a flame. And before you know it becomes a fire that fuels your determination to keep pushing, to keep striving, to rise again and again no matter how many times you fall.
The power of gratitude is that it doesn’t ask you to deny the struggle. It simply asks you to see beyond it. Life will throw curveballs and there will be times when you feel like everything is falling apart. But in those moments, gratitude becomes your anchor. It doesn’t mean you ignore the struggles. But you begin to see them differently. You start to realize that even in the darkest moments there is always something to be thankful for — ALWAYS.
Gratitude is not just a fleeting feeling — it’s a mindset, a way of being. It forces you to stop dwelling on the negative. That shift is not just a small adjustment, it’s a profound change in how you approach every situation every day. It shifts your attention from the setbacks to the opportunities that come disguised within them.
When you practice gratitude consistently, it starts to shape the way your mind works. Your brain becomes wired to look for good in every situation. It becomes second nature to focus on the positive instead of dwelling on the negative. And trust me, once you start looking for the good, you’ll find it everywhere. The world is full of small, beautiful moments that often go unnoticed because we’re too distracted by what we think is going wrong.
When you allow yourself to slow down to truly observe you start to see the blessings in your life, you notice the warmth of the sun on your skin during a walk, the way the wind feels against your face, or the joy that comes from hearing a child laugh. These moments may seem insignificant at first glance, but they are what makes life rich and meaningful. That’s what gratitude does for you.
Gratitude asks you to pause, to step back and recognize that right now in this moment there is something to appreciate. It might be small, it might seem insignificant, but it’s there. You woke up this morning with breath in your lungs. That is a reason to be grateful. Not everyone gets that gift. Not everyone gets to see another sunrise, to feel the fresh air feel their lungs, to be alive for another day.
That’s what gratitude does. It gives you a reason to stay in the fight when all logic tells you to throw in the towel. It reminds you that even in the darkest moments there’s still light. Gratitude transforms your energy. When you focus on what you’re thankful for, your energy shifts from defeat to determination. It’s like flipping a switch. You start to recognize that while you may not be able to control everything that happens to you, you can control how you respond to it.
You can choose to see the good even in the midst of the bad. And in that choice resilience
is built. Gratitude fuels your resilience by reminding you that life, no matter how tough it gets, is still worth fighting for. You become unshakable. Not because life has stopped throwing punches, but because you’ve learned how to roll with them, how to get back up each time stronger than before.
And here’s the best part — when you live being grateful you attract more of the things you’re grateful for. You create a positive cycle of abundance, joy, and fulfillment that grows stronger with each passing day. That’s the power of gratitude. It doesn’t just keep you moving forward, it gives you a reason to move forward. It grounds you in the present while keeping your eyes fixed on the future.
In conclusion, here’s what Denzel Washington had to say at a graduation ceremony
speech that I found on Facebook (www.facebook.com/watch/?v=261060219114632):
“Learn to give thanks. Give thanks for who you are, what you have and what is to come. Be grateful to God for the life you have and how far you have come. Say ‘thank you’ for, your life, family, grace, mercy, understanding, wisdom, love, health, peace. And say ‘thank you’ in advance for what is already yours. Proclaim breakthroughs into your life through gratitude.
“Live a daily life of gratitude. It opens more ways for you. The Bible says in Phillipians 4:6, ‘Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.’ God listens to a grateful heart.
“I pray that you put your slippers way under your bed tonight. So that when you wake up in the morning you must get on your knees to reach them. And while your down there, say thank you for grace, thank you for mercy, thank you for understanding, thank you for wisdom, thank you for parents, thank you for love, thank you for kindness, thank you for humility, thank you for peace, thank you for prosperity.
“Say thank you in advance for what’s already yours. It’s how I live my life. That’s one of the reasons why I am who I am today. Say thank you in advance for what is already yours.”
Judd Matsunaga, Esq., is the founding partner of the Law Offices of Matsunaga & Associates, specializing in estate/Medi-Cal planning, probate, personal injury and real estate law. With offices in Torrance, Hollywood, Sherman Oaks, Pasadena and Fountain Valley, he can be reached at (800) 411-0546. Opinions expressed in this column are not necessarily those of The Rafu Shimpo.