Observations and Insights
on the Nature of Things
This monthly column features brief essays, poems, poetic micro essays and photography
by Eve West Bessier, Poet Laureate Emerita of Silver City and Grant County, New Mexico.
Look for a new post every first Friday.
Cockeyed Optimist
When a glass is filled halfway, call me a “glass half full” kind of person. I prefer optimism over the alternative.
I’m not sure, however, if the well-known analogy is accurately illustrative of optimism. In my opinion, it doesn’t take optimism to see a glass filled halfway with water as being half full. Nor does it take pessimism to call it half empty. Both statements simply address the physical presence of water inside the glass in different ways. And then, there is the quirky issue of the shape of the glass. A glass shaped like a bell (reference my photo above) will look less than half filled even when it’s more than half filled with water by volume.
Yes, I realize the analogy relates to the perspective one takes on the volume of water. Still, I would suggest that true optimism comes into play when the glass is obviously less than half full, or even close to empty, and we have enough faith to believe it can be made full and enough courage to fill it!
There are those who firmly believe that firmly believing in something will bring it into material reality. There is certainly support in a plethora of spiritual teachings for this kind of optimism. Here are a couple of examples that come to my mind.
“As ye have faith, so shall your powers and blessings be.”
Abdu’l-Bahá, Final Address to the First Group of Pilgrims, 1898. Baha’i Faith.
“Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours.”
The New Testament, Mark 11:24.
While I ascribe to finding the silver lining in any challenging situation and believe that my reaction to that situation can greatly change the outcome of my experience, I still have some doubt that mere belief can create material actuality. Then again, even scientifically objective physicists are discovering that the mere act of observing subatomic particles changes their behavior. Perhaps mind over matter is more than wishful thinking.
Finding the silver lining is certainly not a new adage. The 1919 song, “Look for the Silver Lining,” by Jerome Kern with lyrics by B. G. DeSylva, encourages us to maintain hope and optimism, despite all darkness.
“A heart full of joy and gladness will always banish sadness and strife.
So always look for the silver lining and try to find the sunny side of life.”
In these trying times, those lyrics may sound Pollyanna. There are all too many obstructions to the light at this juncture of our collective history. Yet, surely the light shines through somewhere. In the beauty of a landscape. In the generosity of a kind gesture. In the willingness of multitudes to stand for justice. In the crystalline reflections of genuine love and open-hearted compassion that break through the threatening storms.
So, go ahead and call me a “cockeyed optimist,” to quote another time-honored tune from the 1949 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, South Pacific. I’m going to hang my hat on my faith in the general good. I invite you to join me. May our collective faith bring that good into the foreground. May our collective optimism despite the current heavy gloom, make the silver lining shine and fill the glass to the top!
Photo credit: “Optimism,” Eve West Bessier, 2025
