Ups and Downs: Trying to Look at the Brighter Side of Things

Today was a weird day.  Not bad, but not good.  Just weird.  It could have been bad, but I didn't let it be.  Thus it was weird.

I used to know someone once upon a time in a previous life who was astoundingly good at seeing the brighter side of things.  One could say "Ugh...it's raining again," and the reply would be "Think of how great this is for the lawn," or "Walks in the rain are romantic," or "Quick! Get the Slip-N-Slide!"  You could say "I just broke my arm," and you'd hear in return "Nice! Finally you've got a good excuse for your terrible penmanship!" or "Hey, at least it wasn't both arms," or "I've got the perfect picture for your cast."  If you happened to mention that you lost your prize-winning pet iguana to an Elvis impersonator in a high-stakes poker game while trapped by a blizzard in a mountain cabin with no hope of rescue, invariably the retort would be, "WOW!  Who else in the world could say that?  You lead such an amazing life!"  In fact, I'd bet that if you crashed your plane into the desert, and everyone you loved perished, all of the food and water was lost in the flames, and you're 1000 miles from anywhere and no one even knows you're missing, you've got broken legs, internal bleeding, a terrible hangnail and even more terrible intestinal gas, and you knew that even if you were rescued, you'd be ruined because you'd wagered your life savings and reputation on a successful flight, AND you couldn't solve the crossword puzzle that day, if all of that happened I'm sure that all you'd get would be "Quit your complaining....I bet the sunset is amazing here....."



Anyway, you get the point.  It's a bit overstated, granted, but that's really how I saw it.  No matter how dreary things looked, I was always reminded of some bright spot created from the situation.  And I'll admit, it was nice.  And just what I needed at the time.  In fact, it's kinda what I need all the time.   It's what I think everyone needs all of the time.  I'm not saying we shouldn't be realistic about things, but very much more often than not, there's something good that comes out of something bad, and to turn a little attention to that adds a bit of perspective and balance to the situation which seems to make it not only less bad, but also much more manageable.

A word on glasses:  We all know the classic "Is this glass half-full or half-empty" question, but I've actually given a bit of thought to this recently (cut me some slack....I pick up buckets three days a week in a truck with no radio....my mind wanders a bit).  I've concluded that the "half-full/half-empty" situation only applies to a small minority of people.  Other groups are:

• the "Where did the other part of the water go?" people (who miss the point all together),
• the "Doesn't matter, it's not my glass" people (self-absorbed), 
• the "Wanna see who's glass has more?" people (ultra-competitive),
• the "My glass is so much fuller than that one" people (self-absorbed AND ultra-competitive),
• the "I just drank the water, so now it's totally empty and there is no question any more" people (the fixers)
•  the "There is no glass" people (who've watched the Matrix too many times)

and the list goes on and on.  I'm feeling now like it's getting a bit tedious.  You're smart people.  You get the point.

Anyway, I've really been trying to see the brighter side of things these days.  And I think it's a good thing.  I don't know if it makes me feel better about things, but I think it does give me a clearer picture of the world unfolding around me, and that's always good.  Or at least whatever I imagine "good" is.  

This is all getting a bit metaphysical...and that wasn't my intention.

My current default response to a bad/unpredicted/troublesome situation is to assess what I've recently learned from the situation.  Today I learned:

1. the inner-workings of an HP LaserJet 4200 Printer, and that there are many mostly inaccessible places for bits of paper to hide and gum up the works, but if you spend 20 or so minutes poking and prodding you'll most likely find what you're looking for.
2. the makers of the Leatherman offer a 25-year warranty on their multi-tools, so if you happen to break the head off of one half of the pliers bit while trying to pull a peg out of a junky pressboard desk that you shouldn't even have been trying to fix in the first place but you're a nice guy and offered anyway, well, the folks at Leatherman have got you covered.
3. that just because someone decided that your 35-gallon trash can full of green waste is leaking all over their floor, it doesn't actually mean that it is. 
4. that if someone does happen to posit that your 35-gallon container is leaky, and you then take it outside and fill it with water to prove that it's not, and it actually isn't at all leaky, you should not expect to receive any kind of affirming response, but should instead expect everyone you tell to not give the proverbial two craps about it, but to simply assure you that they will certainly pass it on to upper management.
5. that even though you're right, you shouldn't think it'll get you out of the work of emptying six five-gallon buckets of green waste into the non-leaky 35-gallon bin and then rinsing said buckets out, all of which should have been done by the store staff throughout the day.
6. that if you if you do happen to go through all of this rigmarole, please note that you might walk out of the storeroom to find a very attractive woman carrying a large unwieldy box from her car, which you could offer to carry for her, to which she might reply "Thanks, I've got it," after which you might take your time strapping everything down in the truck, so that when she came out you could say "It's not that I thought you couldn't handle it, but it's just against my upbringing to not at least offer," at which point she might laugh and say, "That's the best part about paper products - they always look heavier than they are," which might lead to a short but pleasant conversation.
7. that women carrying paper products from their car are often married.

These are just a few of the events today. Again, I think it's getting a bit tedious, so I'll let it go.

So yeah...  strange day.  But not a bad one.  And that's the important bit, right?

I guess all this means is that I'm an "All I know is there's a glass, and there's some water in it...and that's pretty okay, I guess" person (optimistic pessimist....or is it pessimistic optimist?  :)  ).