The Glass Can Be Either Empty or Half Full

Sometimes I really love the perspective of viewing the glass as either half full or half empty. It seems cliche, I hear the phrase so often.

Like everything else in life, I can either consider it cliche and ignore it or I can pause to think about the question.

I can decide my life and the events within it are more empty than full. I can also decide that my life is that water flowing around and embracing the events in my life as part of the package of what makes life have meaning.

If I embrace the latter idea, then there are endless possibilities which will fill the top half of that glass. Its my choice.

The glass is really just a metaphor for the ying and yang in life. I’m a believer that the nature of the universe is to create balance between the negative and the positive.

I have to admit though, there are times I despair about some areas and if they will ever find balance.

I’m a news junkie. Not a day goes by without me checking in on what is going on in the world around me. The app Flipboard is one of my favourites. I get to scroll through headlines and articles from around the world and on a range of subjects to satisfy that need to see what’s up.

Some days, I should really just close the app and curl up some where safe. I wonder about the future of humanity when I see the polarization on issues and the anger that flows from some groups. Not just small isolated groups but widespread.

Immigration is one of those areas.

To hear some politicians, people who are immigrating from one country to another are here to invade us. They aren’t alone, there are many who believe this. It’s easy to look at strangers with anger and derision.

I get some of that in a way.

We’re in the midst of the largest migration of people in the world since the mass movement seen after WW2 when people displaced by the war moved around Europe and the rest of the world trying to rebuild shattered lives.

For the countries where those people are trying to immigrate to, its unsettling to have a sudden influx of people looking to start new lives. I get that. It’s easier to lash out at the immigrants than to take a hard look at what is driving them away from their homelands.

And what is driving them away? Take a look and you’ll find corrupt and authoritarian leaderships more focused on their own selfish ends and enriching themselves than leading their countries.

After WW2 there were likely many Nazis slipped away from justice by blending in with the mass of people trying to find new lives. Yes, there may be some bad characters moving within the mass of people trying to once again find new lives.

Are we going to be glass half full or empty on the subject?

Last week was the sentencing of a transport driver in Saskatchewan who blew through a well marked stop sign a year ago. He slammed into a bus carrying a young hockey players.

The driver was charged with 16 counts of dangerous driving causing death and 13 counts of dangerous driving causing serious injury. He received 8 years for each of former and 5 for each of the latter. The judged ruled he would serve them concurrently not consecutively. So he spends eight years in prison.

I was personally angry at this. I felt he should have served them consecutively, effectively leaving him in prison for life.

I saw the glass half empty on the outcome.

Then I learned he’s going to effectively have a much longer sentence. Turns out the driver is not a Canadian citizen. His criminal conviction here in Canada will get him deported back to his homeland.

Now I see the glass half full on that subject but started to wonder about my own sense that justice could not be served without the driver’s life being turned upside while having to live with what he did every day of his life regardless of where he is.

Glass half empty or glass half full. We get to choose depending on our outlook on any topic. Sometimes, we really should explore our outlook and how it squares up with not only our values in life but how they impact others.

I think if more people did so, we might start to return to a less polarized society where we can have healthy debates and find common ground instead of the kill or be killed level of public discourse we have now.

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Posted from my blog with SteemPress : https://idesofmay.com/2019/03/28/the-glass-can-be-either-empty-or-half-full/

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