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Half Full or Half Empty

Half Full or Half Empty

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The trouble with philosophical abstraction is that it tries to create a space separated from the world.

The metaphor of the slippery slope, for example, has become almost literal. That’s why it is often effective. Who wants to slide down a slippery slope? What is unstated but operative is that this metaphor encourages the reader/hearer to assume – without question – that there exists a place that is not slippery, where one cannot slide or fall.

In our complex world (and especially with regard to ethical and legal questions that affect people’s lives), we seem to have a craving to be able to state our understandings in a universally-applicable and absolute way, even about topics that are not absolute and cannot be absolute. That’s why “top-down” understandings must play against “bottom-up” ones, where a multitude of examples and perspectives of experience can realistically inform both theory and practice.

Why am I having these thoughts today? It’s all about the old question of whether the glass is half empty or half full.

I’ve heard a lot of answers to that question. Some will say it is both half empty and half full, or even that it is neither half full nor half empty. Your personal preference of interpretation can be used as a measure of optimism or pessimism. There are hundreds of jokes.

Last night I read the hands-down best answer to the question of whether the glass is half-full or half-empty. That answer illustrates a kind of blind spot for absolute abstraction and universalizing. It illustrates the importance of perspective and context in a completely different way. Just by the wayside, it made me laugh so hard that I felt compelled to share the joy. I think that only a woman could have come up with this answer. In this case, a grandmother.

I didn’t find it in a philosophy book, but in a chapter on grandparents in Cosbyology: Essays and Observations From the Doctor of Comedy, a short book by Bill Cosby. At Temple University, he had been assigned to debate one side or another. The question seemed unanswerable to him.

So I went home that night — and my grandmother was there — and she saw me concentrating and so she asked me what was the matter.

“I’m supposed to figure out if the glass is half full or half empty,” I told her.

Without a moment’s hesitation, in a split second, my grandmother shrugged and said:

“It depends on if you’re drinking or pouring.”

Least Immoral Choice in Iraq

Least Immoral Choice in Iraq

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We still haven’t heard an answer to the basic question: for what “noble cause” have we invaded Iraq?

Are we in Iraq just to secure the oil for the energy companies that get so much support of every kind from the US government?

Not to be a party pooper or anything, but what about the death and pain and chaos and suffering? What is the reason for the sacrifices of U.S. and other allied soldiers? What is the justification for the thousands killed on every side?

For what reason have we punched the hornet’s nest in Iraq?

For what are we going into further, almost unthinkable debt?

How much longer will we turn away from the reality?

Declare war, or cut executive powers of war.

Argue for oil interests, or stop killing for them. You can’t tell me that we don’t have permanent bases along the pipeline.

Don’t send thousands more Americans out there. How does that help anything at all?

I’m just waiting for the someone to start making comparisons between the executions of Saddam and Jesus. USA Pilate and Judas, all mixed into one. Yeah, we made him, and we’ll make sure he’s hung like a witch… start the taunting…

Look! Look at reality. This is not a movie.

Wake up, America. Your future is being stolen from you, too.

The thing I remember most vividly is the soldiers screaming in pain and crying out for their mothers. My mother went up and down the aisles holding their hands, stroking their brows, giving them sips of water. My sister helped light their cigarettes. Many of them were amputees. Some had no stomachs, some had no faces. …

I hope that when President Bush discusses sending more troops to Iraq, knowing that we will have to pull out sooner rather than later, that the conversation comes around to the human suffering. Does anyone at the table ask about the personal anguish, the long-term effects, emotional, psychological and financial, on the families of those killed, wounded or permanently disabled?

When I hear about the surge, all I can think of is those young soldiers on the plane to Texas. We have already lost more than 3,000 soldiers, and many more have been wounded and disabled.

We have three choices here. All three are immoral. We can keep the status quo and gradually pull out; we can surge; or we can pull out now. When I think about those young soldiers on that plane coming back from Japan years ago, I believe pulling out now is the least immoral choice.

from The Least Immoral Choice: Squander No More U.S. Lives in Iraq
By Sally Quinn
(Washington Post Tuesday, January 9, 2007; Page A15)
(Sally Quinn is a co-moderator of On Faith, an online conversation on religion.)