Half Empty or Half Full?
It really depends on the way we look at it.
Most of us encountered having science and philosophy teachers quizzing us on whether a glass half-filled with liquid is half empty or half full. Guess what? They never really answered the question as we ourselves never did really find out which should be the “correct” response. They just left us in our seats forever wondering if ever there was a norm that we could comfortably hold on to as something that we could definitely believe in because society says it’s rational and therefore, should never be debated on.
Though these things have always been in my subconscious, i.e. the rational relativity and subjectivity of everything, I have never really dwelled much on such ideas enough to make these the everyday unavoidable rice staple of my brain. One night, however, was different. In the middle of being crushed and pushed inside a jampacked bus whose conductor kept on yelling “Maluwag pa! Maluwag pa! (There’s still space! There’s still space!)”, I thought, “How simple could it be? Half empty? Half full? Let’s make an analogy!”
So there I was. Amidst risking the fact that I could embarrass myself by falling face down on the bus’ aisle, I whipped out my mobile phone and furiously sent text messages to friends regarding my “moment of enlightenment”.
Again. It really depends on the way we look at it.
Take the serving of rice being sold in various food establishments for example. Famous fast food chains (with KFC topping my list) that sell a serving of rice, which is usually perceived by everybody as amounting to a “cup”, actually sell a half worth of serving (meaning, half cup of rice) for almost double the price. “Jolly jeeps” in Makati City in the meantime, sell a fast food chain’s definition and description of a “serving of rice” for half its price.
Confused? Compare a certain fast food chain’s P10 worth of a serving of rice (which is actually only a half cup of rice) to a roadside eatery’s P5 full cup of rice. And to think the variety of rice served is more or less the same. I mean, come on, when we buy rice from a fast food chain, do we actually ask the lady at the counter what type of rice they serve and whether or not it is commensurate (Oh I love this word!) to the price? It certainly is the last thing we’re going to think about especially if all we want to do is get our lunchtime hunger over and done with. It’s the rule of economics talking especially when we decidedly risk a huge part of our salaries for a chance to eat at an expensive restaurant with us getting less than our money’s worth for our primary purpose which is to eat. Quality food? Sheesh. Crap. Who knows? Knowing how sneaky some businessmen could be, we never really could tell if we really do get our money’s worth. But we couldn’t care less. We are paying for the ambiance anyway.
How about the rules and regulations in the LRTs and MRTs? I am certainly one of those who practically glorifies the person who invented overhead transits. I most certainly am also one of those who thankfully never encountered being stuck in the middle of EDSA (think between Santolan-Ortigas) and being forced to leave the train and walk all the way back to the nearest station under the searing heat of the mid-day summer sun. But though I perfectly understand that there’s a perfectly valid reason behind the existence of rules, my sensible self just sometimes could not take that the words “railway”, “ridicule”, “rational” and “rules” all start in the letter R.
To state my point, take my gorgeously arranged colorful balloon bouquet I received from my boyfriend as a Valentine’s gift for example. These balloons are of not the ordinary round shape. The balloons I got were in the shapes of flowers and hearts. Upon reaching the Central LRT station as I have to take the train on my way home, the lady guard stopped me in my tracks and said I could not enter the station unless I remove the air out of the balloons I was holding. Knowing that I did certainly not look like a terrorist ready to use the balloons as a weapon of mass destruction and that for this particular reason the lady guard was just doing her job, I, like a retreating soldier who’s unwilling to surrender her dignity and pride just yet, painstakingly trudged instead what seemed like a mile towards the jeepney stop. Of course I was unwilling to remove the air from the balloons with the fun shapes. I, for one, don’t have an air pump at home. I’m not willing as well to abuse my poor lungs in bringing back the shape of my balloons. But seriously though, if such were the case everywhere, then the world might as well prohibit balloons and canned goods in the market if only to prevent terrorists from using these to blow up everybody. Then again, I’m a rational person and I definitely could understand the essence of rules.
Then there’s the lovebug and its Filipino creator that outsmarted the security firewalls that Pentagon was and still is boasting about. Virus creators for me are nothing but pathetic fools who, sooner or later, one way or another, would have to swallow an overdose of their own bitter pill as they watch their “high tech” gadgets succumb to their creations.
Also, how would I forget? The Meebo! Meebo.com plays host to a number of chat messengers such as YM (Yahoo Messenger) and MSN’s Windows Messenger (I think this is for Hotmail users, never tried it though.). This website enables users to chat without having to download first the messenger software. I got introduced to this website by the uber-sneaky superiors of mine who themselves say that “chatting” is prohibited in the office but just as well are often caught happily chatting away.
What’s more even more curious in the company I’m working for right now is the fact that the Chikka Messenger is not allowed despite us being responsible for Chikka Asia’s CMMI Level-5 certification. I once raised this issue to one of our consultants. I mentioned that since Chikka is an internet software that enables free sending of SMS, this should be allowed. This would cut the cost of having to call clients and colleagues for something that’s not really that important or urgent. And for the response? “Employees are not allowed usage as this (online “texting”) is gonna be the only thing they will be doing all day.” Okay, fair enough as a reason. But how come I see a number of computers with Chikka softwares successfully installed and up and running? Not that I’m sour graping…
And then there’s my source of inspiration: the bus conductor. My everyday commuting experience tells me that if it was not for the mandatory issuance of ticket to passengers, bus drivers and conductors, sans the pretending-to-be-asleep-passengers-just-to-escape-paying and the others who take the advantage of a “free” ride, could actually make a lot of money. Unlike ships and planes that have a minimum-maximum capacity for obvious safety purposes, buses and its drivers and conductors are almost always glad to welcome the harried passenger who’s more than willing to squeeze himself in if only to arrive to his destination on time even if there’s barely enough space to breathe or scratch one’s shin.
Notice how these conductors and drivers always aggressively say there’s still so much space on their buses? Beware. The naïve type would probably hop on and end up either with an actual sitting space (Good then!) or a space. That’s it, nothing more, nothing less. And even before the poor thing could strut her butt back to the bus door and hurl profanities to the “lying” drivers and conductors, she would suddenly find herself being pushed further back to the end of the bus with a company of fools like her who have no choice but to accept their miserable fate of coming from a tiring and stressful day at work wearing three-inch stilettos as the bus quickly rolls away from the bus stop and takes a sharp turn to the highway.
From all these points of analogy, I guess everything really boils down on how we treat and react on certain situations. If you can’t beat ‘em, might as well join ‘em, as they say. This is as equally as good in meaning as what our general manager once said, “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you”.
If going with the flow isn’t one’s thing, then albeit the risk of sounding like an activist or a feminist, do whatever you want, react however you desire. We can’t really please anybody or force anyone to be as pessimist or as optimist as we are about certain things or ideas. It is pretty much in the same way as not being able to force Allah’s worshippers to eat pig or convincing conservative Roman Catholic cardinals that since God gave us the ability to analyze ideas and the freedom to choose, then He’s more than welcome to be questioned regarding his so-called omni-present power.
If a full non-biased acceptance of differences of perspectives isn’t really going to be the “in” thing for the next thousand years, then the next best thing is to say that the water level in the glass has reached 50%.
