The Case With The Broken Glass

There is something about broken pieces that makes you think about life. You know, when you’re in a hurry and time seems to be running out, and then you try to lift something, maybe a bag, a shoe, a purse, and that glass flower vase breaks, or when you’re in a hurry and you are trying to prepare something really fast and you lift a tray or a plate and the other plate falls to the ground and shatters. You try to stop it, but you miss by just a fraction of a second. At that moment it feels like the worst had just happened because first of all, it’s going to delay you even more, you’ll have to clean up and then go back to what you were doing before it broke. The feeling of the shattering, especially if the stuff that broke is expensive or cherished. The process of the shattering, which usually happens within a blink of an eye and of course the aftermath. For a split moment, you just stand, and look at the mess you’ve made, not just with the glass but also with yourself and your life and they you realize that some things are just beyond your control. But there is also that soothing relief you get afterwards. You realize, the force with which you were in a hurry before has somehow dissipated. This relief I think you also get when something really annoying happens, like a husband cheating on a wife and the wife finds out and rushes home to smash fine Chinas on the wall…I think it’s the same relief but like alcohol, that relief is but for a moment and you still have to face the heap of broken Chinas. Then comes the regret part, when you get back from work (maybe that’s where you were rushing off to in the first place), your eyes darts off to that empty space where the flower vase should have been and still wish your purse hadn’t been close to the flower vase. Then you try to remember how you got the flower vase in the first place. Well people, you can do either of two things, continue to stare at the empty place where the flower vase should have been or go out to the store and get yourself a new flower vase… your choice!... and yes a broke something today.