Half Empty or Half Full?

This is the first of two postings following up to "Happy New Year in Paradise"

As I've written before, few things bug me more than being labeled an optimist. Optimists are ditzes who intentionally delude themselves. That's the last thing I want to ever do. But so many people favor negativity that neutral objective clarity is easily mistaken for "positive thinking".

In the "glass half-empty/glass half-full" debate, I'm for seeing the glass as it actually is, without dramatizing it via tacked-on implications.

The characterization is completely besides the point. If there's water, any water at all, great! Drink, enjoy, and appreciate! If not, don't waste a nano-second characterizing it. Just go find water. Or else move blithely on to something else.

There's nothing else to say unless you feel like you're starring in a movie where every plot turn - e.g. the water glass reveal - is accompanied by happy or sad music. That cinematic perspective is false and immensely unhealthy. It's a self-defeating indulgence of bored rich people.

If this outlook strikes someone as "positive", it's because they're so mired in negativity that they can't see straight.


Related: see "The Monks and the Coffee"


All postings labeled "definitions"