The Way I See It

We've all heard the glass half full or empty anecdote, and I'm sure we don't want to dive into that whole schpiel again. I've noticed, however that we let it slip into our lives and dialogue in unexpected ways and in strange places. What happens then, is that it starts growing like a weed, and creeping into other areas of our lives...before long taking over the way we view the world. But here's the fact: it's not where you are, what you have or who is in your corner...it's how you see it.

A short trip down philosophy-lane.

I don't pretend to be a philosopher, and academic or even someone that has a clue about the difference between Plato and Kant (I want to make a joke here, but I Kant...) What I can do well, however...is imagine. So imagine for a moment, we can take our glass half full and not only appreciate it for it's content and surroundings but for the people in it's proximity. Imagine for a moment you go Wes Anderson on this baby and take a snapshot of you holding this glass in the perfect space and time, Bill Murray doing the narrating...doesn't that sound like something we can get excited about?

Well, you can. We can get excited about small and silly moments in our lives, in fact I would highly recommend it.

The value of the small things.

In my favourite movie ever The Secret Life of Walter Mitty the main character (played by Ben Stiller) discovers through various odd adventures that his unique gifts and character traits make him valuable to those around him. In the film, the 'meaning of life' is constantly featured in very impactful ways, and it honestly changed my outlook on life. It challenged me to see the beauty in the everyday and the extraordinary in the routine. You see people who see the glass half full, spend very little time remimiscing the 'full glass days' or hoping for a refill in the future. They have mastered the art of mini celebrations...and so should we.

The way we see it.

I titled the post, The Way I See It, because I encountered a few things in the day to day of people in Cape Town. We are used to this being a holiday destination, but on Monday at 7:30 you're still going to be on your way to work, encountering Taxi's and speedsters and the odd bumper bash or two. Moving a little over a 1000 km away to a 'holiday' destination didn't magically change the surroundings (although traffic with a Table Mountain view is quite a site).

So if nothing changed in the day to day, why write about this? I had a choice to bring down the same mentality of rushing and competing that I had in my life in Pretoria, or I could adapt it to a more layed back, purposeful posture. Neither would make the traffic dissapear, but the latter would make me see the mountain every morning.

Here is the just then: it doesn't matter what level our glass is on or where we find ourselves drinking it, if the way we view it sucks...whatever surrounds it will suck too. My advice: think less sucky thoughts, go and watch the Secret Life of Walter Mitty and be more chilled.

Till next time, have a kick-ass day!

TF