The Glass is Flowing Over
Are you a glass-half-full or a glass-half-empty kind of person? Most people instinctively respond with half-full in order to appear uppity. Ironically, the half-empty crowd is usually only half-empty because they wish to be pleasantly surprised rather than disappointed. Ultimately, these generalizations, and many others like them, fail to capture the essence of the psyche on anything beyond a basic level.
It’s Not About Perception
I have heard many people describe the glass test as a means to measure how a person perceives situations. This is half-true, and depending on the context may be quite accurate. Originally, the test was meant to gauge gratitude against ingratitude. Why not perception? Simply because perception is exceptionally fickle. Any one of a number of factors can dramatically alter it. Anyone that has been, or been around anyone that is sleep deprived or “hangry” (being temperamental, edgy, and/or angry due to hunger) knows this.
Gratitude is also fickle, but not to the extent that perception is. This is primarily because gratitude is partially dependent upon perceptions. This means that familiar, repeated experiences have a tendency in the mind to reinforce an illusion that life as we know it is more stable than it really is. Sometimes the repetition compounds that belief to the point of delusion, fostering a “tragedies happen to other people” mentality. It is remarkable how common such delusions are today.
Taking for Granted the Fact We Can Take So Much for Granted
The dangers of harboring such delusions are commonly known; but few people alter their thinking in a manner that would mitigate them. Hollywood has recognized this fact, using it as a plot line for many different movies. Almost all of them featuring the cliched line “I didn’t know what I had until it was gone!”
Therein lies one of the biggest roots of societal problems we have today. So many people have no idea how good life really is, or how much easier we have it over previous generations. The question isn’t if the glass is half-full or half-empty, it’s can you see the glass?
Most people living in the modern world cannot, especially young people. We take for granted most of the societal comforts we have created for ourselves. Think about it: In our homes, each light switch is expected to illuminate its connected bulb when flipped; clean, drinkable water is expected to flow from the tap when the valve is opened; and the walls of our homes are expected to keep us safe from the dangers outside. Even when these expectations are not met, people expect the services behind them to be promptly restored. Life as we know it is expected; and it is expected to be expected. We take for granted how much our way of life allows us to take for granted.
There are still quite a few people in the world that do not have a light switch or electricity; they have no tap water or plumbing; and far too many have it much worse, having been unjustly imprisoned in squalor and kept away from family and friends. Life is still exceptionally hard for a lot of people, and too many face it alone. That could have been any of us, but instead we are blessed beyond measure. At any moment, tragedy could strike and take away what we love.
“The way to love anything is to realize it might be lost.” - G. K. Chesterton
Chesterton is right. If we apply his wisdom in our lives for nearly everything we should be grateful for, and we choose to love what we have, we will be happier. Intuitively this makes sense; and research confirms it to be true. We can take this even further by accounting for what we take for granted. Many people don’t appreciate the fact that thousands upon thousands of people work hard to provide for and make life better for everyone. They work hard to provide electricity for society, to put food into nearby stores, to provide roads to drive on, to patrol them and ensure they are safe, even endanger themselves to save us when tragedy strikes. All of it is worthy to be thankful of. If we add everything up, most of the troubles we have seem trivial. Not all will be, but for most of us, the glass no longer looks half-full, it’s flowing over. Enjoy it, and be grateful.
