Why The Glass Is Always Totally Full
In response to A New View of Losing Years of Work, a reader named Ann sent us this perfect cartoon and commentary:
I’m not sure this link* will take you to the place I intend. I want to link you to the cartoon that shows a man tied to a chair while masked men steal his tv. It’s another attempt to see the possible positive side of an unplanned and involuntary loss of “stuff.”
It also reminds me a response to the old question “Is the glass half full or half empty?”
Answer: “The glass is always totally full: half with liquid, half with air.”
Just think of all the air you can fit into your glass when you get rid of the liquid! Of course, this is all easy for me to say as I sit here with all my “stuff” firmly in place.
I have never heard that wonderful answer.
A few days later, Ann sent an addendum, commenting on my statement that “I might have nothing to show for years of writing, thinking, finding, corresponding, designing”
I’d like to remind you that you’d still have a lot to show for your years of work: friends you’ve made, changes you’ve made to your life and abode, memories of the posts, the knowledge that you have improved and inspired other peoples lives. A few days ago I used “What’s not wrong?” in a conversation with a friend who was having a meltdown. Thank you for that post, and for so many others that I have used to improve my life. And remember, throughout most of the history of human beings we have lived, and thrived, without physical and digital archives.
Editor’s note: the cartoon is from the New Yorker’s great January Cartoon Issue. We found it and printed it above.
Thanks Ann!
