Is the Cup Half Empty or Half Full ?
Half Empty or Half Full ? Is the cup half empty, or half full ? Are people lucky because God made a rose among the thorns, or unlucky because He made thorns among the roses ? Erich Fromm, a German philosopher, states the paradox of love, “In love the paradox occurs that two beings become one and yet remain two.” Nathaniel Hawthorne illustrates the paradox of this or that in “The Birthmark”. Georgiana’s birthmark is both a blessing and a curse. The problem is the birthmark is a visible imperfection of Georgiana’s otherwise perfect beauty. Does God curse her, to mar such beauty with a flaw ? Aylmer grows to loathe the mark, “ No, dearest Georgiana, you came so nearly perfect from the hand of Nature, that this slightly possible defect…shocks me, as being the visible mark of earthly imperfection” (11). And because her husband, the man she is bound to forever by land and spiritual law, despises the mark, Georgiana grows steadily more and more insecure of her beauty. Once she was pleased with it remarking,” To tell you the truth, it has so often been called a charm” (11). Now, she is desperate to be rid of it. Her husband sees it as a horrid imperfection and soon corrupts his wife’s perception. And yet, does God bless her , to place such perfection still on a human face ?