Half full

I had a few extra moments this morning to go visit some blogs outside my normal universe of sites that I stay up to date with. They reminded me of the 'glass half-empty' vs 'glass half-full' maxim.

Some people look at the world, the church, politics, etc and complain about how bad it is, how much it could improve, or how bad everyone else is. Nothing seems to be good enough, satisfying, fulfilling; everything is broken and needs to be fixed, and fixed in the way they see fit.

I suppose we all go there from time to time. But what a gloomy place that is. Why not be thankful for the good we do see in the world, for the good we do experience? Why not celebrate the good we see in others more than complaining about their lack of character? This isn't to say that we don't do what we can to improve ourselves and the world around us, but that we do so from a positive vs negative perspective.

Comments

[susan rose]

I've had the samee experience when I diverge from my regular reading.

From my experience, it is by being thankful for our gifts and the good in the world that we are able to see those things that need to be changed.

When you focus only on the negative, it's harder to see good things into fruition.

[Crystal]

I agree it's good to appreciate the good, but if we fail to notice, and sometimes even be upset about, the bad stuff, how will it ever get changed?

[Jim]

The "trick", as far as I'm concerned, Steve, is somewhere in the balance between the two, seeing the world as it is and not necessarily swimming in either side 24/7......

[Steve Bogner]

Susan, I agree that an attitude of thankfulness leads us to see what needs to be changed. That's also much the same as the power of love, in my opinion.

Crystal, I agree with you. It seems to me that some people live in the half-empty world most of the time, and that doesn't lead to much that is good (my opinion).

Hi Jim - That's a good trick to know. It's not half-empty, nor half-full. It's just a glass of water, right?

[Neil]

Dear Steve,

I think that I'd agree with Crystal, Jim, and you about the need for balance. But I also think that you were right to initially worry about someone who constantly laments that "everything is broken and needs to be fixed." There is a danger of falling in love with negativity, of clinging to a helpless gloom. Archbishop Rowan Williams got at this sort of danger in a sermon in Amman:

"Perhaps we are in love with our suffering. It sounds like a shocking idea, but we need to think hard about it. We have a history of oppression, displacement, cruelty from the hands of others, and our whole sense of who we are becomes bound up with this. We know who we are because we all join to tell the same story of how inhumanly we have been treated. It may be a true story, a terrible story: the world does indeed run with innocent blood and the history of any community will be shot through with the stuff of nightmares. Reading Christian history should tell us as clearly as we could wish that there is hardly any Church that has not been responsible at some point for another Church’s suffering. It is so hard to come to the point where we are free to say, ‘I must make something from my suffering that will build bridges into the suffering of another’. How much easier to say, ‘My suffering is greater than yours; my needs must override yours.’ And so we never come to a place where justice for everyone can be worked out because we want first of all to have the justice that is ours alone, whatever the expense to anyone else.

"And this means in turn that we can even be in love with our weakness. We are so used to being victims that we cannot get used to acting for ourselves. We react, we fail to plan and to create; and so we never have to take real responsibility for what happens, because someone else always has the initiative. We can take refuge in the dignity of not having to risk decision and change."

(Of course, I'm not pointing the finger at anyone in particular.)

Thanks.

Neil

[Jim]

It may not be possible with a glass of water, Steve, but it sure works with the world. I sat in a class last Wednesday evening where the question was asked: Is the world better or worse as we go on? The general consensus, with which I agreed, was simply that the world is as it always was, possessing both evil AND good. The problem isn't the world, but me, and how I'm going to live in it.........

[Steve Bogner]

Neil - Thanks for that quote. His observation that ‘I must make something from my suffering that will build bridges into the suffering of another’ is very insightful. And he points out another fact that some people don't like to hear - that some are so used to being victims that they can't act for themselves.

Jim, I like how you state the problem - how am I going to live in the world? A good question to reflect on, daily.

[Paul Lew]

Hear, hear. The Church is the sacrament of salvation, and if we do not witness to hope and redemption in our lives and way of thinking, we'll be offering the world a very sad and pessimistic vision of our faith!

[Mary H.]

"Why not be thankful for the good we do see in the world, for the good we do experience? Why not celebrate the good we see in others more than complaining about their lack of character?"
Exactly right, Steve. I hate to admit it, but sometime my first reaction is negative, especially when it concerns my German-Dutch heritage of cleanliness, orderliness, and neatness. I live in a diverse neighborhood with several two-family "shotgun" type buildings (I think they're called Italianate)- no driveways, no garages. I noticed one of the new people next-door working on his car in the street, with cigarette butts littered around. My immediate reaction was, I hate that litter... and it's illegal to be working on your car in the street in my town (though the police do not enforce it unless someone complains.)
But maybe because I was thinking of your blog, I tried to look at the good... he seems like a nice-enough fellow, he isn't playing loud music, he has picked up all the automobile litter, I'm glad he knows how to do car stuff. Finally, I went over and said hello. He's a great guy - his ankle was hurt badly at work and he has been struggling to work and pay medical bills. He had had a $1500 estimate to fix his car and was able to do it for $200 himself.
We ended the conversation friends with me offering the use of my driveway next time so he could have some shade to work in. And as he finished, I noticed him picking up the cigarette butts!
But even if the incident hadn't turned out so well, I think just trying to see the good would have made it OK.

[Steve Bogner]

Paul - Thanks for stopping by and commenting. Hope & redemption - that's a great way to put it.

Mary - What a great experience to share! Seeing the good there led to a good outcome; I like that.