Optimism

July 11

 I am thankful for optimism. I would much rather be naively optimistic than realistically pessimistic. It makes life more fun and less depressing. Call me Polyanna if you'd like. But, hey, I liked that movie. Polyanna played the "glad game" in which she found something to be glad about in any situation. A quote from the movie attributed to Abraham Lincoln but actually made up by the Director of the movie, David Swift, was "When you look for the bad in mankind, expecting to find it, you surely will." Polyanna makes it her daily goal to look for the good in all things. She told Reverend Ford about more than 800 "glad texts" in the Bible, which the reverend could talk about rather than the Hell and Brimstone he continually yelled at the congregation about before. The next day, Reverend Ford said he counted them himself and there turned out to be 826 "glad texts". I'm not sure how accurate that is but, whatever... the point is it is much more fun and productive to be an optimist than a pessimist.

Today's photo is a glass of wine which is "half full" rather than "half empty", referring to the old addage of whether you look at a glass half full or half empty.  I took the photo to make it look more full than empty to try to show it is strictly your vantage point which determines whether you see it as half full or half empty. An optimist sees it as half full. A pessimist sees it as half empty! I know the glass is half full (or empty) because I measured the volume accurately with a calibrated liquid measuring device. The glass held 10 ounces and I put 5 ounces in. So much for the scientist in me!

half full, half empty

mr. tomlinson

was a half full kind of guy

he always saw the positives

and preferred a smile to a cry

mr. jones however

was a half empty bloke

he always saw what could go bad

that of course is no joke

mr. deville in contrast

was NEVER a happy man to see

he scowled and scolded and sulked

for his own glass was almost empty.

© rt tulley