Just a Glass of Water!

Some see the glass as half full; we call them optimists. Some see the glass as half empty; we call them pessimists. But me, I just see a glass of water -I call myself a realist. There is a certain balance present when you are a realist; the scale isn’t tipped too high or too low, just right in the middle, seeing things clearly as they are.

People generally like being around optimists – they’re like sprinkles on the ice cream of life, always adding a little bit of extra sparkle to the truth. They’re hopeful and upbeat and encouraging but at times they may pave the way to disappointment.

Some steer away from pessimists -they’re the ones that may add a pinch of gloom and doom to a situation. The ‘what-ifers’, prepared to see the dark side. With a pessimist there is always a chance you may instead be pleasantly surprised - but in the mean time they seem to hide a bit of sunshine.

But a realist sees ‘the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.’ Realists can dream but only after calculating risks and setting realistic goals. They don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up and they don’t want to bring anyone, including themselves, down. Being a realist seems to be a very safe way to be. We may not be the life of the party but we’ll always be there to help clean up.

Unknowingly, some optimists view realists as pessimists - in an effort to keep the sprinkles on their ice cream. In our culture we tend to encourage optimism as a life-long goal. They’re popular, upbeat, wholesome, sunny.

I wonder if there is a genetic code for optimists, pessimists and realists or are we all just products of our environment. Both of my parents lived through the Stock Market Crash, The Great Depression, World War II – both survived the struggles of a life of scarcity and lack; and I think they both turned out to be realists- with my mom’s needle leaning slightly toward optimism and my dad’s toward pessimism-a good balance perhaps, creating a family of realists with similar characteristics.   How much control do we each have in how we present in this world? Is it all just a part of the ‘yin and yang’ of the planet-a balance that each of us are unknowingly at work in keeping?

I have wondered if the ‘Yin and Yang’ - the opposite but interconnected, self-perpetuating cycle-the balance of life- will always retain the counterparts of war and peace- good and evil- joy and sadness? Will one never have the ability to overshadow or overtake the other? Will the wish for world peace never come to fruition because of the equilibrium that may have to be kept between the two? Day and night- hot and cold, war and peace? Do we stop wishing and praying and hoping and just accept that one is just a required part of the other?

I accept my role as a realist. People know what to expect from me- no fireworks, no great abyss, no roller coaster ride - just a train ride through the Great Plains. I can gasp at beauty and cry at injustice but my needle always returns to the center. It’s safe there. I may not be wearing rose colored glasses but quite dependably I will be wearing my transition lenses. How about you?

A kid’s song I wrote celebrating our differences!