Glass at Half

Half empty or half full?  That’s the question, right?

It’s half empty. 

I’m glad I could clear that up for everyone. I hope we can all move on now.

Chicken or Egg?.... What?  Oh, you want me to defend myself.

Fine.  You’re at a restaurant.  Does your drink ever show up half full?  No.  Does it show up half empty?  No.  It shows up full, and you drink it until it’s gone.  At some point, it’s half empty. 

Its all about direction.  If you’re filling the glass up, then sure, there is a moment in which it is half full.  But by the time you’re staring at the glass, pondering the question, you’ve already finished half of it.  It was full.  It’s on its way down because you’re drinking it.  So halfway is half empty.

What if you only want half a glass?

No one wants only half a glass.  My experience is that if you ask someone, “fill it only half way, please,” they’ll go ahead and fill it until its almost full, damn near full, but not quite.  90%.  There’s some humanistic need to fill that sucker up all the way.

Even if you fill that glass up yourself, I bet you’d be more likely to fill it all that way up, have two sips, and dump the rest of it in the sink.  No one ever wants it at half.

Why not?  Well, because its half empty.  It is was half full, we’d be satisfied.

They say that “half-full” is an optimistic outlook.  I disagree.  Half full is a satisfaction gained from only half-assing something - say, for example, your life. 

Let’s spin it around and say half empty is optimistic.  You see the room for improvement.  It is the motivator of a successful person.

Bartender, top me off will ya?!