The Philosophy of Shattered Glass Records

Picture a stained-glass window.

Every piece of glass in a stained-glass window is unique. No two are exactly the same color, shape, clarity or texture. Some have rough, sharp edges, some are polished and smooth. Some are big, others are small.

It doesn't really make any sense to say that one piece of glass in a stained glass window is better or worse than any other; each piece has been placed where it's uniqueness fits the best, and because of that, all of those different pieces of glass come together to produce a work of art.

If every piece of glass were the same color, you would just have an ordinary window. If just one of the pieces of glass were changed to be more clear, or more smooth, somehow more “perfect”, the image would be different. If one piece of glass were missing, or too big, or yellow instead of blue, the art would disappear.

People are just as unique. Quirky. Colorful, or maybe austere. Clear or cloudy. Sometimes smooth, sometimes sharp. Maybe even dangerous. We don't make art because we are perfect, whatever perfect means; We make art because we are different from each other, and we have something that only we can say or do that the world needs from us. There is no one exactly like us, and if we try to force ourselves into being yellow instead of blue, the art disappears.

We also never really see the whole picture because we are always too close to it. A stained glass window looks much different from six inches away than from sixty feet. Sometimes we might get jealous of another artist, or the way the culture seems to showcase one particular person while completely ignoring another. But like the pieces of glass, no artist is better or more important than another. We are each right where we are supposed to be. Without our artist friends around us, holding us up and shining with us, we aren't worth much. Just a piece of shattered glass.

There is no competition in a stained-glass window, and I think that is beautiful.