Tell it like Eyore

Is your glass half-full or half-empty? We are not talking here about a glass of your favourite tipple, be it G & T, (mine with ice and a slice-of orange for preference, thank you), a robust red or even a glass of 'Old Peculiar'. We are talking the glass of life.

This subject was bought  vividly home to me the other day, after a prolonged and mournful telephone conversation with an old acquaintance. He is not old, but our relationship is of long standing and I sometimes wonder why this is. It is not a reciprocal friendship, as in he says 'hello, you fine and wonderful lady and how are you and what a fantastic life this is' and then I say 'you lovely flatterer you. Yes I am in the pink and indeed life is pretty yipee isn't it.'

We do not proceed along these lines and now I come to reflect upon it, we never have. I have known, let's call him 'Jim' for a great many years and he is aware of my upbeat take on life. My glass is more than half-full. Sadly, his is always half-empty, making for something of a chasm between us that no amount of rickety bridge-building on my part can do to construct a full and rich friendship between us. 

He is Eyore to my Tigger.  Admittedly a Tigger type is a bit much for most people and I am more restrained than our stripey friend. But 'Jim' is Eyore to his boot-strap bottoms. No patch of nettles would ever be big enough or succulent enough to please our Eyore-Jim

You could lay all the earth's riches out before him, have Salome dance for him all night and a lot more besides and he'd still be mournful. I don't know why this is, he has everything going for him and still isn't happy. Exasperating? Maddening? Yes, in view of our far less fortunate brethren around the world, I could cheerfully strangle him,  and yet, he IS so lonely and miserable in himself I cannot.. To throw another animal into the mix, can a leopard ever change its spots? I doubt it. Sadly, his glass will always be half-empty and the joyousness of life elude him. And I will always be a Tigger. My glass is half-full. Half-full? Ha, better find the bottle and get the glass filled up. Cheers everyone, Christmas is coming, I need the practice!