Is your glass half full, or half empty?

This is the question I’ve pondered during much of my life. I knew the correct answer that would lead to a happier existence.

Or so I thought.

Turns out, I’m not done learning. Or thinking about old things in new ways.

The whole glass full or empty example illustrates our ability to choose positivity or negativity in life. It’s a great analogy. 

But there’s so much more to be gained from the glass. And the liquid within said glass.

Not wine, although there is that. I’m talking something even bigger than wine. 

I’m talking about thinking outside the glass, while staying inside the glass.

Which sort of bends the glass if you allow such thinking. 

I’ll elaborate.

The two options most often provided us are that we see the glass as half full or half empty. It’s a black and white proposition in a world filled with grays.

What if your glass is full to the brim? Fulfilling and complete. Wouldn’t that be lovely?

Or, maybe your glass is empty, just waiting for you to fill it with the water, soda, juice, milk, coffee, beer or wine of your choice. Would’t that be lovely?

Perhaps your glass is filled, but not with any liquid beverage. Maybe you’ve been given a shrimp cocktail. If you happen to love shrimp, I’d sure you’d agree that this would be a lovely alternative.

Imagine another option: your glass has tipped over and spilled. This might seem not-so-lovely at first glance. But look beyond the immediate circumstance. A spilled glass leaves you with an empty glass, which leaves you with the opportunity to refill your glass with the drink (or shrimp cocktail) of your choosing. 

Repeat after me: Wouldn’t that be lovely?

Oh, but what if you are given a broken glass, or what if somewhere along the way, your glass topples and shatters? Broken glass is far from lovely. But it does provide you with the option of choosing a brand new glass, or a brand new outlook. In that case scenario, you are free to make it lovely as you’d like. 

Perhaps, but even closer to the truth, perhaps none of us is given a glass that is fully intact. We all have chips and scars on the surface. No glass is perfect. Many are broken.

When that happens to us, personally, we may feel without recourse, but a broken glass is only the beginning. Because that is the time when we realize we never needed a glass at all. The glass was only a mirage for what was behind it and beside it and in front of it all along.

Losing the glass only allows us to see what was there from the start, and it’s beyond a glass or shrimp cocktail or even wine.

It’s an immense reservoir filled with something without a vintage date or any cocktail sauce. It is comprised of peace.

We often talk of a glass half full or half empty, but in that we are limiting our own possibilities. Full, empty, half-full, half-empty or anything in-between. Life is filled with potential experiences and we are only limited by our own scope of what is possible.

Glass half full? Half empty? Toss the glass and create your own grand finale.

Cheers to that.

— Jill Pertler’s column Slices of Life appears regularly in the Times. She can be reached at slicescolumn@gmail.com.