A debate that has gone on for as long as I can remember. Is the Glass half full or half empty?

The optimist would agree that it's half full.  To the pessimist that same glass is half empty. Who's right?  Well they both are in reality. But who's reality is correct?  What if there's just a glass of water and both are correct?  Who really cares?

Well I do. Not that I necessarily care about the glass itself but more the mindset associated with the perceptions of the glass. Both are only partial realities... half truths. The actuality is that there is a glass of water.  this is what the equilibrated mind sees.  The more evolved mind that can see the big picture rather than getting caught in half truths. 

Does any of this matter? Let's take the example of something prevalent in todays society... being unemployed. the optimist will argue that losing ones job is a good thing because it opens up more time to do what you love, more time to spend building relationships, more time to build a new set of skills, allows one to gain a better understanding of their personal finances and budget thus eliminating wasteful spending, allows one to assess their real value to a company should they go for another job, which would make them a more productive part of a company, thus helping it grow and stimulate the economy and much more.

The pessimist on the other hand will argue that being unemployed causes financial stress which will put strain on personal relationships, causes low self esteem, a feeling of helplessness, too much free time, loss of quality of life, dependency on others and much more.

Who's right? is unemployment good or is it bad?

Unemployment just is. It's our own one sided perceptions based on what we feel (pleasure or pain) that label this experience good or bad. In other words we assign it a value based on our emotions.  In fact this is what we do everyday with every experience we encounter. It's all we ever do. We then tend to gravitate towards pleasure and run from pain.  In actuality every experience contains both pleasure and pain equally.  Don't believe it? look back at one of your past experiences that you thought was painful at the time. Maybe it's weeks, months or years later now but can you see benefits that came into your life as a direct result of that challenge?  If you take the time to look you will find that every experience has both sides.  The actuality beyond the half truths is that there is just a glass of water; It's both half full and half empty.