Playing it straight

[flexagon]

To quote from a source I'm reading, which I won't name because of upcoming holidays:

We normally characterize an optimist as someone who sees his glass as being half full rather than half empty. For [a certain type of person], though, this degree of optimism would only be a starting point. After expressing his appreciation that his glass is half full rather than being completely empty, he will go on to express his delight at even having a glass: It could, after all, have been broken or stolen. And if he is atop his... game, he might go on to comment about what an astonishing thing glass vessels are: They are cheap and fairly durable, impart no taste to what we put in them, and... allow us to see what they contain. This might sound silly, but to someone who has not lost his capacity for joy, the world is a wonderful place.

So when I stop to think about it, I'm thankful for quite a few things. Topping the list (or to put it more acrobatically, basing everything else) is being born in a century with vision correction and orthodontics, without which I'd be much less functional, and also in a century where I can be educated and opinionated without being ostracized or burned as a witch. In a compounding stroke of luck, I was even born in a wealthy nation that allows people to pretty much shape their own lives.

After that comes the overwhelming cascade of present-day details: the way Hobbes fell so deeply asleep on me on the couch that he was dreaming. The way we have a rule in this house that a snuggling cat is far too heavy to move, and the stuck person should have coffee and books brought to them rather than have the cat disturbed. The sheer smarts of Blindsight, which I read this week and has still got me thinking about whether consciousness is all that great.

My latest new words: seeksorrow, cupidity.

The community deadmachinery, recently spotlighted.

Triple-pane windows. Acroyoga immersion coming up in a week, job advancement opportunities.
Christmas presents (almost) all arrived and piled up for wrapping later.

New condo, probably closing on December 16th. The opportunity to live in this one for seven years and the prospect of one more holiday season here.

When the pager went off in the night last night, it wasn't really an emergency.

Blogs. Ravelry. Internet.

An embarrassment of riches.

Comments

[soong.livejournal.com]

what an astonishing thing glass vessels are
Go on to some optimistic cosmology and what an amazing thing it is that the universal constants work out so as to produce galaxies and stars and planets and life. My (personal) religion admits one Miracle: Existence. The universe exists and we exist. Wow.

[flexagon]

Yep. I almost went there with the cosmological constants, and then I didn't. :)

[le-coeur-chante.livejournal.com]

Oh I love that passage about the glass. So much that I ordered the rest, actually :-) While we're appreciating things, how awesome is it that I can read a passage, source unknown, and in seconds know where it's from, read additional passages in a preview, and arrange to have a full copy sent to my home!?

@soong: Yes! I'm reading "The First Three Minutes" for my astronomy class. How amazing it is that everything occurred in the first three minutes of the universe such that *this* exists!

[flexagon]

Oh my. Although that IS super awesome (and I just finished it this morning and really liked the whole thing, and want to talk about it some more), I'm hoping that the person who's getting it for Xmas doesn't decide to do the same. :)

Let me know what you think, when you're done with it!