There is something fascinating in what we reveal about ourselves when
we give an opinion. Two people can see the same thing as quite
different, opposite in fact. One sees that the glass is half full,
while to the other it is clearly half empty. Both are right. It is
simply that they are different people, probably seeing every situation
as either reassuring or as very much to be watched.
Unsettled weather is threatening to one and hopeful to the other.
To one, a thousand dollars is very much alright, to the other far
from being security. A healing broken leg is great to one,
crippling to the other. A hamburger is junk food to one,
but very satisfying to the other. I could go on and on, but we
all know this. Why this difference?
Staying with our either/or hypothesis, the answer could be in-born
or acquired. I suppose it could be both, and I think it is. We
are conditioned by our surroundings as soon as, or perhaps before,
we are born, so our behaviours, including our attitudes and opinions,
are indeed both from heredity (DNA if you like) and from environment
(of all sorts). I don't think we can fully pin this down, but in
any case there are these two sorts of people we must deal with, the
optimists and the pessimists, and I proclaim myself to be the
half-full type. "I know and know full well" that I am right, and yet
I know that "they" are right too. Collectively, we are all on the edge
of being sane, with all the problems that accompany this state of
being. And musing on these things doesn't do much to change the world
around me, but it sure is fun.
