Debunking the Myth of the Glass Half Full
The Myth
Silence reigns in the classroom as the teacher slowly picks up a glass partially filled with ice cold orange juice, turns to his students and says, "Is the glass half full or half empty?"
The class, college age students in an ivy league university all look at one another and then towards their philosophy professor and with a range of sheepish grins to smug smirks, answer in unison, "half full".
They've been through this ever since preschool and by now, they've gotten the hang of it. They know the right answer, they know the whole 'it's all in the attitude' lecture and they know that this time, they responded correctly.
Debunking the Myth
"wrong"
The professor whispers that one little word so softly, the students aren't sure whether they actually heard him. 'Did he just say wrong? Is he finally going to admit that the glass is half empty?'
They start whispering among themselves, trying to figure out where this is going.
When he's absolutely sure that every one of his students has been completely befuddled, the professor lifts his hand for silence and explains.
"The concept of half full is not one that we believe in. Half full implies that there is another half empty.
If we are constantly looking at our lives, which as we all know is what the glass is a metaphor for, than that means that we are suggesting there is an empty space in our lives, that half empty that is waiting to be filled."
At this point, he picks up a carton of Tropicana orange juice that has been hiding behind his desk and asks his class:
"Do you have a parent who is alive?"
Hands slowly raise across the classroom and after looking around, he pours some orange juice into the glass. "That's for your parent."
"Do you have siblings, a family, relatives?"
This time, the hands come a little faster and again, he adds some more juice to the glass.
"Are you healthy? Are all your organs functioning as they should?"
The hands come even quicker and more juice is poured.
"Do you have a loved one who takes care of you and defends you and is by your side no mater what?"
Hands are shooting up by now and it's almost as if the juice hasn't stopped pouring.
"Do you have a roof over your head? A place to live so that you're not left outside to face the elements of nature?"
By now the hands just stay up and the juice has begun overflowing the glass.
The professor continues along in the same vein, and there is now a little puddle of orange quickly spreading across the desk and threatening to drip onto the floor.
"AND YOU CLAIM THAT THE GLASS IS ONLY HALF FULL!?"
How Do You Classify Your Glass?
Perhaps we can't all claim orange juice for each and every part of our lives.
Perhaps our health isn't 100% intact, or we have lost a parent. Perhaps we're struggling to find money to put food on the table, or we've not yet found a way to resolve that argument with our loved one.
But think about all the other areas of life!
Can you really claim that your glass is only half full?
Recent Comments
21
Love it. New perspective. We all need a new perspective. My glass is full, no half emptiness here.
I like this lesson.
Some say if you get a 'smaller' glass, it will always be full even to the point of overflowing.
True, true.
Then again, technically, it should always be overflowing - regardless of size!
I really like this story. I am going to remember this one! Thank you for sharing. So often, we stop at being okay with seeing this as "not so bad". In fact, many of us are more blessed than we realize. We just have to look around and take notice or "count our blessings".
Absolutely!
I just recently heard this story and had to share it. (Adding a dramatic flair of course ;)
The teacher was lucky that there weren't any engineering students in the class -- Pessimists say the glass is half-empty. Optimists say the glass is half-full. Engineers will simply point out that the glass is twice as big as it needs to be. :=)
:) Just an analogy, but I like that - twice as big as it needs to be :)
The lesson however, remains...
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The glass is always full, we just don't understand that because we can't see air.
:-) Well said!
Exactly! I have a T-shirt saying something like this :-)