Glasses half-empty...

[dolorosa_12]

Last night I went out to dinner with my dad and we got into a long discussion about human nature, the state of the world and the meaning of life (as we always seem to do when wine is involved). Something he said that really stayed with me was that he was talking about optimism and pessimism. He said that he was a pessimist about himself, but an optimist about the world, but that Alice (stepmother) and my mum were the opposite: the further they got from themselves, the more pessimistic they got. (I, on the other hand, am pessimistic about both myself and the broader mass of humanity)...It got me wondering, what is more pessimistic and what is more optimistic? To be like my mum implies that you value your own sense of control and responsibility for your own actions, but it also suggests a sense of superiority, and a Mother Courage-like belief in your own ability to get by in the worst of circumstances - and a deep distrust of other people. To be like my dad suggests that you feel no control over your own life, but a romantic faith in the perfectibility of the human soul.

And another thing:

The traditional glass half-full=optimist, glass half-empty=pessimist should be the other way around, because:
1. If you see the glass as half-empty, you'd expected it to be completely full, and are disappointed, therefore you are optimistic.
2. If you see the glass as half-full, you'd expected it to be completely empty, and are pleased, therefore you are pessimistic.

Does that make any sense at all? (Unfortunately, this was not my idea - I got it from Cecillia Dart-Thornton's Bitterbynde trilogy).

I really should stop the philosophising....