Your Point of View

Your Point of view
(by Terry MacHardy)

As a frequent visitor to this blog I would like to share the following story.
I recently attended a pleasant dinner on a rainy evening with some friends from Europe.
Provoked by an anecdote, two of them start to argue about the nature of human existence: is life a tragedy or a comedy? They end up with two contrasting versions of the same story: a comic tale and a more tragic version, both based on the same character. Although the two stories involve similar situations, characters and problems, they both have very different endings. Having heard both stories- which are taken from the film Melinda and Melinda-one of the diner’s Colter sums up what seems to be the main idea: everything is colored by our chosen point of view.

Happiness or failure depends on the attitude we adopt toward life. However, what is it that makes us see a glass as half full or half empty? Often we place too much value on reality and discard the illusions that would have helped us to see the glass as half full. At the end of the day what counts is our ability to interpret and remember our experiences with a positive slant. If we manage to do that regularly, trusting in our ability to control our own moods, we will enjoy all of the advantages that stem from a positive view of life. Being positive is a process, not a state, and that is within anyone’s reach-we just need to have a better command of our inner selves, and consequently take a more optimistic view of the world around us. We would do ourselves a great favor if we could always see the glass as half- full-yet we so easily regard it as half empty!

Some insist on emphasizing that negative side of our being, the negative side of our existence. Life is very short and it must not be wasted with pointless regrets. ( How curious: the saying and thinking that life is to short in itself, a manifestation of the dark side that keeps insisting on seeing the glass as half empty)Frequently we do not realize how many positive things happen to us purely because we are incapable of seeing them. The good, the positive, the nice, and the simply wonderful things-sometimes we just don’t even notice them.

Some people will say that, in this life, there is no such thing as a half-full or a half empty glass, but simply half a glass. Most of the time, the facts that we see are based on interpretation rather than reality-so we would be well advised to learn to distinguish our opinions from our observations.
How do you see it?

From my Family to all of yours,
Have a Merry Christmas and a Safe, Happy, Healthful New Year.

T. Mac