BY DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY DEC. 11, 2017) —  After a trip shopping, the passenger in my car wanted a swig from THE PLANET‘s electrolyte-laced water. She took the bottle, and said, “It’s half full.”  She was correct?

Is the glass (the can, the memory stick, the bleachers, the “anything” that contains or holds quantity) half empty or half full? That question used to be the litmus test for one’s identify as an “optimist” or a “pessimist.” Today, however, with the news and the times so inundated by and from the insane, whip-driven pace of social media, the test has to be examined. That’s not pessimism. That’s skepticism, a prerequisite any good journalist holds for unsupported claims, however obvious.

The presence of liquid justifies saying the water bottle is half full. It cannot be anything but, since the remaining portion of water settles in about half way up the container.  “Half full” suggests with an irrefutable implication that you can put then-again as much water into the bottle, 100% more, and you would  reach capacity. “Half full” is therefore optimistic, because it acknowledges the water that’s present and not absence of anything else. It would be absurd to make a statement about the condition of the bottle by focusing on something that isn’t  there,  which is what one does when they say the bottle is half empty.

For instance, a person does not necessarily know if the bottle was any different before she observed it.  Without forehand knowledge, one can’t assume anything more than what one sees. If there is water in the bottle or fannies in the seats, they are “there,” with other answer logically possible. In this case, THE PLANET had such foreknowledge. We had indeed  earlier filled the bottle to the top and had consumed about half of it when our fellow traveler quaffed in delight — the flavor of orange electrolytes tickling the taste buds, for those keeping score at home.

You may wonder what’s the point in this ephemeric bit of philosophy. Without getting all Nietzsche on you, suffice it to say that words matter. Words, especially written ones, indicate attitude (in writing, called “tone”). Having the same bottle described with opposite and contradictory words (“half empty” vs. “half full”) can only be done by a human being. Animals, or any other sentient creature, don’t have the need to put labels on bottles of water, paintings, trees, or anything else. They digest experience directly, fully, as it is — the old “being in itself” saw. For them, nothing is ever “half” anything. People — inflicted as we are, however — need to reveal themselves when communicating, otherwise the human race would still be stuck with grunts, groans, and gestures when faced with the overwhelming task of communicating.

We subconsciously need to declare ourSelves to others as a form of Self preservation and to prevent the painful fate of being “invisible” to others. Thus, when you “half full” the glass or bottle, you make an assertion about who you are, and optimists in the whole make better traveling companions in life than pessimists. We want them riding shotgun.

“Always say ‘yes’ if ‘yes’ is the answer,” go the lyrics to a country song. THE PLANET agrees. Better to try at success than play it safe by not taking the risk. Such timidity has over the eons resulted in too much failure, disappointment, and heartache. Perhaps those sad adjuncts describe the fate of all people, since we all eventually die. Knowing what’s ahead, how then does a person ring meaning and value out of such a certain outcome?

Easy. You call the bottle “half full.” We wan’t the “yes” of affirmation … or what’s a life for?

The person in our car did just that. She sat there on the way back from the store, grocery bags full, cracking jokes and making witty observations about life and what-not..

She’s an optimist.

She’s THE PLANET‘s mom.

She turned 96 this month.

96: Not a half-full age, but Full-full one.

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“It’s getting hard to be someone, but it all works out.” — John Lennon, “Strawberry Fields Forever.”

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.

The Usual Disclaimer.