Wednesday, July 24, 2013

The name I chose for this blog


The other day, I had a talk with someone who thought he knew all about me.  He had the impression that I was a sunny optimist, and his take on my recent funk was not typical of me.  He said he thought I was a glass-half-full person, usually. 

Well, I believe I am.  I believe I am also a glass-half empty person.  And I also believe this applies to everyone.   

When you face the reality of this object lesson, the fact of the matter is that both are equally true.  A simple optimist/pessimist question becomes a riddle, a puzzle. 

To my thinking, to deny either of them is to deny the other. 

This got me pondering.  Some would say over thinking, but hear me out… 

I also believe we are the glass.  We are partially full, we are partially empty.  The emptiness and the fullness gave me the idea to write this blog.  It sparked the idea that this partial-ness gives us our humanity, empathy, and capacity to see the world as we do. 

We are told in Corinthians (KJV) that we see through a glass darkly. [1]  I think Paul was talking about us as human, fallen creatures.  The Greek for the word darkly is αἴνιγμα, or enigmati, source of our word enigma.  So it is not just seeing our world as through rose colored glasses, or even sunglasses.  It is seeing our world as a puzzle. 

This object lesson is one of those puzzles. 

I don’t think the emptiness is negative, or positive, only that we make these things so.  Likewise our fullness – it is not a positive or negative, it just IS. 
There ya go.  The name came, and I began...



[1] 1st Corinthians 13:12- for now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

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