Half Glass Full or Half Glass Empty …?

“Both optimists and pessimists contribute to our society. The optimist invents the airplane and the pessimist the parachute.” ~G. B. Stern

Half glass full or half glass empty? What do you see? While you are thinking about your answer, let me share something with you.

Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia – read the book or seen the movie starring Julia Roberts? I haven’t seen the movie yet but curious to find out what the author (Elizabeth Gilbert) had to write about her journey of self-discovery and soul-searching, I read the book.

I wont spoil the fun and narrate the whole story but here’s a little background to set the context. Elizabeth, after a nasty divorce, decides to spend a year in three countries – Italy, India and Indonesia.

In Italy, she pursues pleasure, learning the “beautiful” Italian language and savoring delicious Italian food. In India, she discovers her spirituality in a sacred ashram near Mumbai, practicing chanting, prayer and meditation and following the rigors of a yogi. In Indonesia, she learns the balancing act, discovering the middle path between materialism and spirituality.

While in India, she finds the ashram eerily quiet for her tumultuous and racing mind. She wears a cheerful countenance and finding it hard to remain silent, strikes up much conversation with fellow residents.

Just when the Ashram appoints her hostess, perfect for a cheerful and chatty person like her, she decides to fall into silence. She has this funny and delightful conversation in her head – she would become the most silent girl in the ashram (with a saintly smile to go with it), so silent that people would point at her admiring her quietness and calm presence. After many days of enacting this self-imposed drama, a realization dawns upon her and she reverts back to her usual chatty and cheerful self.

“The optimist sees the rose and not its thorns; the pessimist stares at the thorns, oblivious of the rose.” ~ Kahlil Gibran

I was in splits when I read through this part. It stirred memories of a certain phase of my life when I decided to fall into silence. The reasons and motives were totally different though.

As I mentioned in a previous article, I was doing my bachelors when my aunt died. I don’t know what happened exactly but this triggered off something in me. I don’t know if I was an optimist until then but I do remember turning into a silent and serious pessimist. All I could see around me was misery, suffering, unhappiness, poverty, problems and negativity … well, you get the idea.

“Between the optimist and the pessimist, the difference is droll. The optimist sees the doughnut; the pessimist the hole!” ~Oscar Wilde

 Life looked gloomy and the future appeared bleak. There were a number of questions in my head. I wondered about life and the purpose of living. There didn’t seem much purpose in studying or working hard (and joining the rat race) if I was going to die one day. I mean, what a waste of time and energy!  I withdrew into myself. “Why?” was my favorite question. I was seriously quiet and quietly serious. I was guilty too for wasting my time in one of the top schools in the country.

I would sit in the front row in the classroom and wonder why I should study about optical fibers  (for example) and how they could possibly alleviate poverty and misery from the world. Since everything seemed so hopeless and pointless, I would engage myself by sleeping with my eyes open right in front of the professor, with the most attentive and intent look on my face. I know, it’s terribly insulting:( Especially, when I come from a family of professors (my dad’s one) – boo hoo:(

“Laugh, and the world laughs with you; weep, and you weep alone.” ~Ella Wheeler Wilcox

My close friends wondered and watched me for while. Bet I looked as if I were carrying the entire globe on my shoulders! I suspect I even donned the ghost of a saintly smile on my face for extra effect! Not able to figure out what came over me, they wisely left me alone.

“What we focus on, we empower and enlarge. Good multiplies when focused upon. Negativity multiplies when focused upon. The choice is ours: Which do we want more of?” ~ Julia Cameron

This went on for weeks. Others around me went about their daily life as usual. Then one day, tired and thoroughly bored of being serious, sad, gloomy, pessimistic, tragic, miserable, silly, foolish, melodramatic, idiotic, stupid, (and you have my permission to add your choice of words to the list) etc. etc. I snapped out of “that” phase. It just happened…and thank heavens for that!

The same world looked different to me now. The sun never shone brighter. The sky was a perfect blue and the clouds looked like white cotton balls. When it rained, the earth smelled wonderful. I could see bright yellow flower around and I was in love with the yellow color. Music was wonderful, friends were great, life was fun. I was back to my usual chatty and cheerful self. There was hope and life seemed full of possibilities. Everything was just perfect.

And I learned a very valuable lesson, a lesson I wouldn’t forget that easily. Life may be full of troubles, problems and suffering and it may be pointless and hopeless – but it’s equally pointless to be sad, serious and miserable and view the world with negativity! It’s very, very, very fatiguing, depressing and lonely! Brooding over (imaginary) troubles is no fun. Take my word for it. And it wasn’t like I was achieving anything significant and worthwhile by moping around.

Determined not to be caught unawares by negativity and pessimism again (and be drowned by them in the process),  I looked for ways so I could spot them at a distance and steer myself away from them.

“Being happy doesn’t mean that everything is perfect. It means that you’ve decided to look beyond the imperfections.” ~Unknown

Be cheerful. I had a choice. I could choose to be cheerful or I could choose to be negative. By being cheerful, at least I wouldn’t be adding further gloom to the world outside. That looked like a good motivation to start with at that time.

Be happy, be cheerful, smile – always and in all ways, I told myself. Under one and only one circumstance – when the sky falls down – I gave myself permission to complain, to be pessimistic and negative. And in the worst case, eeeevvennnn if it were falling down, why not admire the blueness of the sky?”

So that became my yardstick or call what you may – and whenever I encountered a difficult situation, I would ask myself the question – is the sky falling down? Nope. The sky isn’t falling down yet and until it does, there’s no need to be pessimistic or negative. This is not the end of life. Move on. Laugh. Explore possibilities.

“If I had no sense of humor, I would long ago have committed suicide.” ~Mahatma Gandhi

Cultivate a great sense of humor. Humor helps. It’s taught me to laugh at myself and not to take life too seriously at times.

Cultivate a sense of humor and you will look for ways to find something funny, something that will make you laugh. It helps you to laugh at your troubles, not that they would go away but they would certainly feel lighter.

“The optimist lives on the peninsula of infinite possibilities; the pessimist is stranded on the island of perpetual indecision.” ~William Arthur Ward

Be willing to expand your perspective. Once you make a habit of looking at life with a different perspective, you will be surprised to see different dimensions, you will be surprised at the possibilities that open up.

It’s only when we tend to stick to a limited perspective, that we tend to become negative and pessimistic.

“Some people think of the glass as half full. Some people think of the glass as half empty. I think of the glass as too big.” ~George Carlin

Ok, have you thought about your answer? What do you see – half glass full or half glass empty?

Typically, this question is asked to find out the general attitude of a person. People who see the glass as half full are considered to be optimists and people who see the glass as half empty are seen as pessimists. But then, is that all?

There’s no one answer to this question. Because it depends on your perspective, your state of mind and your sense of humor. So, on a lighter note, here are some responses to the question. Do you have something that you would like to add? Go right ahead and log a comment.

My husband wants to know what’s in there. If it’s something he doesn’t like, he doesn’t care if it’s half empty or full empty.

The physics teacher sees a wonderful example to demonstrate the three states of matter to her students – glass for solid, water for liquid, air for gaseous.

The yogi sees it as the balanced and middle path to live life – the perfect balance between spirit (symbolized by air – the invisible) and matter (symbolized by water – the visible).

The motivational speaker talks about the soul-mind-body harmony – the air depicts the soul, the water the mind and the glass itself the body.

Einstein wants to know why the glass is called half empty. There’s nothing empty in there, it’s all energy.

The monkey looks curiously at the glass, turns it upside down, empties the contents in the process…

The dog waits  for you to throw the glass so he could fetch it for you.

The consultant has a strategy  and a methodology to examine the two scenarios, all for the hourly rate of …

The project manager wants to know the size of the glass, the contents of the glass, the users of the glass, the look and feel of the glass etc. so he may commit to an answer.  Why, only a few months ago, he solved the same problem for another client, there the glass was three times as big…

A perfectionist homemaker doesn’t care if the glass is half full or half empty, she sees if it’s clean enough or needs some scrubbing.

A person lost in the desert sees heaven.

And how about this? I think since one end is open, it’s not a fair question because there’s more air than water.

“One day, someone showed me a glass of water that was half full.  And he said, “Is it half full or half empty?”  So I drank the water.  No more problem.”  ~Alexander Jodorowsky

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