Glass shattering” Moment

 “Glass shattering” Moment

There was a big shattering sound hit by random stones, leaving ample space between my car and the vehicle in front of me … stones, pebbles and gravel thrown by other car-tyres… damaged my vehicle.  There were cracks, chips and scratches all over the windscreen. I was also hurt on my head.  Breaking glass was a terrifying situation for me and for the car too. Thousands of pieces of broken glass were scattered on the road. I was outraged by this act. I was not sure whether it was clearly intended to injure the car… was it a malicious target? Thanks to the local crowd which successfully identified the case ….The story snowballs into an ethical controversy, since the culprit was not any person. It was due to the construction work of PWD. As a result, it happens sometimes that the small stones shoot out arbitrarily. Shattered glass, lying on the road, points out – easy to break, hard to fix.  But who is to be held responsible for the act? Not the pebbles and stones definitely. 

My mother used to tell me that I have a hole in my hand. I don't know how many glasses I had broken. Once when a fine glass vase went from treasure to trash, someone told from behind that this was an absolutely mischief act on her part. I was annoyed once again. The guilt that crept in my mind caused a plenty of emotional and physical turmoil. The glass vase was really a wonderful piece no doubt!! I was struggling with recurring self-judgment and criticism related to my action of what happened.  But I was sure there was amiss in between, it was not my fault. It slipped out from my hands. However, it fueled my motivation to clean my mess-up guilt, when I learn that a singer can shatter glass with the proper high notes. The voice of the singer or the sound of the instrument is a series of air pressure waves, with the pitch related to the frequency of the waves, and the volume related to the amplitude of the waves, may cause the stress on the glass and it may shatter, if the timing is correct.  This was an example of a driven oscillation of my mind.

And now I can recollect another incident,  once it happened that the door bell rang, I went to open the door but there was no one, I came back to my room … and lo! there was second bang, I again went to open the door, there was none and as soon as I went to the room third time and took my instrument and began to play, there was … … huge burst … the door bell broke into pieces….the reason …this time it was the discordant note of the thunderous cloud and flashes of lightning perhaps. Yes, Physics suggests that every piece of glass has a natural resonant frequency—the speed at which it will vibrate if bumped or otherwise disturbed by some stimulus, such as a sound wave. 

I know crystal glass resonates all at one particular harmonic frequency. If one takes a crystal glass, dips one’s finger in water and rubbing it gently around the rim of the glass, the finger will vibrate on the glass, and once it is rightly and consistently touched, the glass will 'hum'. The glass hums (and doesn't shatter) because the amplitude of the waves is not sufficient to surpass the strength of the glass. The inside strings of a musical instrument are called sympathetic strings, because they vibrate with the sound of the main strings. What a magnificent name for the so-called strings which are so tuned up that they pursue the main string.  Thus, to break the glass, one needs to transmit not only a sound that is just the right frequency, but should also have high enough amplitude to surpass the strength of the glass to resist those vibrations and are not big enough to buckle under pressure. 

It is observed in everyday life that as soon as some glass vessel falls on some hard surface such as floor, it breaks immediately because energy which is concentrated on the point of impact with dispersion causing the force to react and go back into the vase causing a break factor greater than the vase can withstand. Whereas when it is dropped on some soft surfaces such as sofa, mattresses, etc. the glass vessel does not break. 

Friends!!! Do we not enjoy the spectacle of a rainbow glimmering against a dark stormy sky? The sunlight falling on clear drops of rain gets broken into the rainbow of colors we see. The same process causes white light to be broken into colors by a clear glass prism or a diamond. Did one not enjoy the broken particles of glasses into kaleidoscope with tremendous excitement hours after hours; at least I used to do so in my childhood days. Why? I still enjoy, I still possess one. 

Well, like “glass breaking” glass ceiling too is regarded as the invisible and artificial barriers that block a group of people from advancing up the corporate ladder to management and executive positions, and glass breaking becomes essential. 

Once I witnessed the anger of a tea shopkeeper, when his child-worker happened to break a few tea glasses. He was shouting furiously. I was terrified and offered the shopkeeper the invariable consolation that it was a sheer mistake on the part of the child. Remember the scene of the movie, “The Kid” where a child assisted Charlie Chaplin to break the windows, so that the duo can repair the window fresh and earn sufficiently for the day. Suppose it was discovered that the little boy was actually hired by the glazier, and paid money for every window he broke, suddenly the same act would be regarded as theft: can society endorse such activities that thrives human values. 

Aha!! My friends, my mind is evoked to the parable of the broken window  narrated by French economist Frederic Bastiat.  The belief that destruction is good for the economy is consequently known as the broken window fallacy or glazier's fallacy. The glazier comes, performs his task, receives his dues, rubs his hands, and, in his heart, blesses the careless child. A variant of this argument suggests that, while war cannot be fairly called a benefactor, it can and sometimes does confer some economic benefits. Nevertheless, this belief of the broken window fallacy suggests that what one cannot see that one could have spent the same money to replace the old shoes, clothes, medicines etc.  

"The broken-window” scenario is used as an analogy for destruction by natural disasters, such as landslides and earthquakes, flood hurricanes. Mental health issues also trigger by the distress suffered …can nature be held responsible for the disaster? … It is alleged that it is man-made disaster…. Complications should not divert us from recognizing the basic truth that the wanton destruction of anything of real value is always a net loss, a misfortune. 

We use glass in various forms in our daily lives ––as mirrors, light bulbs, doors or windows and other household items. It is also true that many of us must have broken it either intentionally or unintentionally. However, according to common belief, if you see a broken glass in your dream, it is a bad sign that indicates that the dreamer might be experiencing problems to break trust in relationships or tarnish his image, might meet an accident in the coming future. On the other hand, breaking glass is considered good luck in many cultures. These superstitions were born out of several generations and somehow linger to this day. Give up metaphysics, and concentrate on physics, my friends !!!  

A deeper understanding of one’s "reading between the lines.", goes beyond the surface details and suggests something else. Suppose one is sitting in one’s car stopped at a red signal light, heard screeching tyres, then a loud crash and breaking glass.  One sees nothing, but one infers that there has been a car accident…..Perhaps it was not an accident involving two moving vehicles…  May be an angry driver rammed a parked car.  Or maybe someone played the sound of a car crash from a recording.  There are many potential causes for spontaneous breakage of tempered glass. The most common cause is damage to the edges of glass as it is being pre-cut into panels, or nicks or chips to the edges that occur when the glass is being packaged, shipped, or installed onsite. While such damage may not be readily apparent, stress concentrations around these imperfections can occur as the glass expands and contracts in response to in-service temperature changes, wind load, building movement, thermal stress and other environmental factors. Ultimately, when those stresses cause the glass to break, the action may appear to have been spontaneous when, in fact, the circumstances for failure had been put in place months or even years earlier. 

Kintsukuroi  is  Japanese method of finely woven tapestry of broken ceramics with a special lacquer mixed with gold, silver, or platinum. The process usually results in something more beautiful than the original. How many window panes were broken by a cricketer to break the earlier record for accumulating tons of runs?

I, myself, am surprised to reveal the “broken windows” theory which is the revelation of the visible sign of disorder in an environment that goes untended. This may include small crimes, acts of vandalism, drunken or disorderly conduct, etc. 

This may remind us that many assume that a large part of our decisions is influenced by unconscious motives which are hidden from our consciousness level. Such actions are possibly not intentional, perhaps not even actions in the strict sense, and we might not be responsible for them…., they are to be taken as the by-product; hence it is a non-dynamic unconscious without any critical motives. Automatic actions – such as changing gears while driving a car, unconsciously conversing with the partner, executing a intention when the right moment has come – are another part of the new unconscious. The sleepwalker is not aware of this and cannot remember this episode after waking. In rare cases sleepwalkers are capable of very complex actions – longer car journeys, writing short but mutilated e-mails, even homicides their complexity; the largest parts of these actions are automatic and stimulus-induced. The domain of what we, as conscious subjects, really control may shrink to a tiny size. The unconscious influences on our decisions and actions mentioned above may also impair or even nullify our freedom of decision. The aim of a free decision is to find the best option among the wide span of alternatives and initiate its implementation, which consist in optimality beliefs that a certain option is the best.

 For example, the president of a search committee rejects a candidate for a job, because he unconsciously reminds him of his party-rival. The judgments’ aim was to determine the objectively best candidate, but this goal was missed because of the unconscious influences. Thus the glass is broken forever. 

Finally, one day some people came to the master and asked ‘How can you be happy in a world of such impermanence’? The master held up a glass and said “Someone gave me this glass, and I really like this glass. It holds my water admirably and it glistens in the sunlight. I touch it and it rings! One day the wind may blow it off the shelf, or my elbow may knock it from the table. And I say, ‘oh! My glass is broken !.’ When I understand that the glass is broken, every moment with it I spent becomes precious. A glass is created and will eventually broken. When we expect something to break, we’re not surprised or disappointed when it does. Instead of becoming immobilized with emotion when something is destroyed, we’ll feel grateful for the time we have had with it. The stars are still just as bright as usual; one can still predict that a falling glass will break, and one can still act to catch it. Don’t regret “If only I hadn’t bought that new expensive Vienna glass” No matter how long one stares at the glass, no matter how much tears have dropped, the glass won’t recover itself and voila!! Buy a new glass, which means, one has to move on for a new life. There’s nothing to worry about. One has a “glass shattering” moment where one realizes that one has a very specific “chewing pattern”. Lo! My God !! quick ! break the glass to pull a fire alarm…. there is fire in the close by building!!!