thank you, thank you, thank you

thank you.

that's a phrase i've been thinking over for a while now. likely resulting from having been surrounded by love and support and assistance and joy from all our friends and family for our wedding (six weeks ago already?!?), and now taking on the task of acknowledging how much we appreciate everyone's contributions and thanking them for it.

thank you. kind of weird, grammatically. as it is, without a subject, it sounds like a command: Give Thanks to You. (but who, then, is the demand being directed at?) or is it like spanish, where you can drop the first person and it's just known that any pronoun-less verbs are attributed to the speaker?

speaking of spanish, i think that's my favorite thank you: gracias. in french it's merci, which also means mercy. in german it's danke, but i don't know enough [read: any] german to know if that word has shades of meaning. but in spanish, it's gracias, graces, thanks. love that. what is this concept of "thanks" that we have in english? an expression of gratitude? a recognition of another's actions? gracias, giving graces.

and with thank you comes you're welcome. for this one, i like english best. spanish and french are de nada and de rien--it's nothing. but that's not true. if you give me something, of your time or treasure or insight or what-have-you, it may be trifling or it may not, but it's not nothing. i want to recognize that, give you thanks and graces for it. i don't want you playing down the value of what you've given me, because i value it too. (and, i'll be honest, sometimes i don't want to play down the value of what i give, too; it is valuable...) so trifle or not, significant or not, english's you are welcome is always appropriate. you are welcome to it, partake in what i have to offer, i am glad to share it.

thank you.
you are welcome.