Optimism. It's a term, that, to many people, represents a whole state of being, and can be so simply determined by the age old standard of, " is the glass half full, or half empty?"
And once having answered this question you are deemed forever to be one way or the other, optimistic or pessimistic.

I have been told that I am optimistic. I have myself seen it as a virtue, and strove to be so. Looking down on pessimism even. But I think that the two poles of this particular scale have been so stretched apart, that it has become hard to see the grey area that exists in every spectrum. And the value that has been assigned to being optimistic has gone beyond a a simple state of mind, to be expected to be able to be some sort of transcendental power. The glass is half full, but just because you believe that, does not necessarily mean the glass is going to magically fill itself to the top.

And I think that is where some lose sight of that grey area. So wanting to believe that if they think positively they can actually change what's in the glass. I think that's a little something known as miracles, and I do believe they happen, but I'm sure I don't have to tell you that they are few and far between, and don't always happen to the people that you may think deserve them.

So what's the grey area? I guess I would best describe it to be realism. It feels almost defeating even as I write it. Like if you're realistic, that automatically makes you not optimistic, and there for you are thrust to the "bad" side of the spectrum. That half empty glass of water that you're going to drown in.

And I think something else has been lost sight of here, is that there is, and only ever was one glass of water. And if your opinion about it changes day to day, or even minute to minute, that's okay. Because the amount of water will never change.

...Well, not without a miracle ;)