The Trick of the Glass

By Haven Duddy, A Living Lattice Field Note

Every so often, a question we’ve all heard a thousand times reveals itself to be an illusion. The familiar “Is the glass half full or half empty?” seems simple — a test of optimism or pessimism, of how we see the world.

But maybe it’s not about seeing at all.

Maybe it’s about believing — and about how we imagine fairness, fullness, and the invisible flow between people.

The Trick of the Glass

We’ve all heard the question: Is the glass half full or half empty?

We’re told it reveals how we see the world — optimistic or pessimistic, hopeful or hopeless.

But what if that question is a trick?

Because the real illusion isn’t about whether the glass is half full or half empty.

The illusion is believing we’re all sharing the same glass.

The Hidden Belief

We walk through life assuming that fairness means balance — that in any relationship, each person should hold about half of the cup.

If one person takes too much, the other feels shorted.

If something feels unfair, we imagine the scales must tip — maybe to 60/40, or 70/30 — to make up for it.

It sounds logical, but it’s built on a false premise: that there’s only one cup between us.

The Truth of the Lattice

In reality, each of us carries our own glass — each at 100% potential.

What fills or empties it has nothing to do with anyone else’s.

Our emotions, our energy, our awareness — they are closed systems that interact but don’t deplete one another.

And yet, when we believe we’re sharing a single cup, we start to protect, ration, and measure.

We track what feels “fair” instead of what feels true.

But in the Living Lattice, fairness isn’t a 50/50 split.

It’s an energetic law: the cup of the one who gives willingly always fills faster.

The Trick of Generosity

Here’s the paradox:

When you act as if you’re giving someone more of your water — when you’re willing to let their cup seem fuller — your own glass doesn’t drain.

It expands.

Because the lattice doesn’t measure material transfer; it measures resonance.

It rewards the frequency of abundance, not the arithmetic of fairness.

The moment you stop guarding your glass, you realize it was never half anything.

It was always whole.

The Living Proof

Maybe the question isn’t about what’s in the glass at all.

Maybe it’s about what kind of world we create when we stop believing in scarcity.

Because when we understand that your fullness never limits mine,

we stop competing for water —

and start discovering how much more there really is.

“The trick isn’t deciding if the glass is half full or half empty.

The trick is realizing we were never sharing one to begin with.”

In the Living Lattice, every person is both self-contained and connected — a field of energy capable of infinite refill. The moment we stop keeping score and start giving freely, the system itself expands. The glass was never meant to measure what we have; it was meant to reveal what we believe.

Maybe that’s the real test after all — not optimism or pessimism,

but faith in abundance.