Reality check; what is real vs concept

I’m currently reading The Art of Possibility by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander. It’s intriguing me on several levels and one particular idea immediately captured my imagination; that the optimists who see the glass as half full are in fact, the only realists – not the cynics as popular culture would have it. The logic being that those that see it half empty are seeing what they think should be there, or could be there, but not what is.   To remark on the absence or lack of anything is an abstract concept, not reflecting the world as it actually exists in this moment. To look at it another way, the glass is technically half full of water and half full of air. To put a priority on the water is making a judgment.

I can’t help but think that my cat is both extremely good at forming abstract concepts (the food dish is empty) and judgment (it should have been filled half an hour ago) so I’m not sure that this isn’t natural wiring for many animals, including humans.  But it’s an interesting concept to ponder; to stop and realize that where we feel lack; no romance, less success, not enough money, we are thinking more than we are seeing.  That zero really is a number that does not exist in tangible form; it is purely conceptual.

If you stripped away everything that was simply perception, what would your world look like?

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