Wednesday, June 17, 2009

A Matter of Perception

Visualize, if you will, a glass filled to exactly 50% of its capacity with water (or milk, or tomato juice—or sand, for crying out loud). How do you see the glass?

Some people see the glass as half-empty. We call these people pessimists.

Other people see the glass as half-full; we call them optimists.

Still others—a precious few—see the glass as being precisely twice as big as it needs to be to do the job required of it. We call these observant, critical-thinking realists troublemakers and malcontents, and relegate their ideas to obscurity because they had the audacity to point out the obvious.

And far too many people have the audacity to wonder why things either always stay the same or get progressively worse.

Call them stuck on stupid.

More of the same ol’ same ol’ isn’t gonna fix anything; never has, never will.

How many times must they learn that lesson before it sticks?

Q >>>