One of the most memorable ads ever simply shows an open bottle of whisky with one line of text beneath. To the host it’s half empty, to the guest it’s half full. The ad didn’t persuade me to buy the whisky, but I never forgot the phrase.

The phrase periodically comes back to memory throughout a lifetime… trouble finding a job, keeping it, working long hours, grumbling about working conditions, the only thing worse than having a job to complain about is not having a job to complain about, and the missing comfort of a paycheck at the end of each month; sometimes like Ol Man River we’re tired of living and skeered of dying; is your bottle half empty or is it half full?

In our personal lives, there are complications, ups and downs, hard to stay close to loved ones and be as totally dedicated to work as the job demands, so where does one draw the line, responding to the emotional needs of a spouse and/or children, the demands on your time made by choice of career, by a workaholic boss, or your own ambition; is your bottle half empty or half full?

At every turn in life there are choices we make, and what those choices are is often determined by the way we look at the bottle of life. Is it half empty or half full? This is the basic choice that colors all the other choices we make and enriches or coarsens the fabric of our lives…