The Glass of "Half-Full" Fame
I do not know if many cultures share the idiom of the glass half full or half empty, but surely there is a comparable expression among all people: the same ambiguous experience can be seen as good, or can be seen as bad. It all depends on the person looking. I suspect that I have not appreciated that analogy much, perhaps because it has become too mundane to consider much. When something's always there, you stop seeing it. So it is quite possible that I have had hundreds of experiences that relate to the perceived volume of cups, but I have just one on my mind. For the past 3 months, I have had abdominal bloating and pain. The whys aren't important [for this blog, I mean. And anyway, they are at this point still unknown] , but the experience is. It leaves me frustrated and uncomfortable. Yet here's the interesting bit: 2 years ago, after my second spinal surgery, I went through similar days of abdominal bloating and pain [the surgical approach was from the front, meaning t