In Paulo Coelho’s novel “By the river Piedra I sat down and wept”, there is a scene where the couple were dining in a restuarant. They were lovers in their childhood and they just met again in the story. In the period of time where they were seperated, the guy moved around the world in search for knowledge and wisdom, and thus he takes the role of a teacher, leading the young woman to realize new aspects of life.
While they were dining, he suddenly asked her to drop the glass of water on the table to the ground and break it. She didn’t understand what he is up to at first and refused to do it. Why would she do that? What an insane idea? and What would be the consequences of such more?
The conversation go on and on. Finally, she did it. The waiter came and cleaned up the mess without any real bad consequences. The only thing she learnt is to be more daring.
The idea behind breaking the glass is breaking all those rules of familiarity that strangle us. Life imposes on us many rules that we fear to break either because we are so familiar with and used to, or because we fear the bad consequences that might not happen in the first place. There are people in life who just can’t make any unfamiliar move. Fear grounds them where they can’t give a logical explanation to their resistance of changes. Changes that are not only limited to their behaviour but also to the way they percieve life and grow with it.
Natasha discusses in this post, why gay people tend to be more creative than others. They dominate the creative industry around the world, from fashoin, entertainment, media and art, and constantly push the world into new creative ideas.
The reason she presents, which I find very logical, is nothing to do with their genes, or same sex attraction, it really lies in where they were forced to break the norm that is defined by society.
Their nature is different than the majority, and thus realizing this difference, they are forced to see the world in other perspectives. Breaking such a major rule in their life, it becomes easier for them to move on and break other rules. When they don’t have real glasses forbidden their mind movement, they can enjoy their freedom and create.
Other people are forced to break their own glasses in different ways. They don’t have to be homosexuals to do so. For instance, I believe that Paulo Coelho himself broke his own glass at a young age when he was subjected to a mental hospital. At that time, he wanted to pursue a career in music as a lyrics writers, which wasn’t really acceptable with his parents and therefore they seek phsycology to treat him. Such a painful experience must have forced him to break his glass and fly in the world of freedom.
Struggle and pain can force people to grow. Fear restricts us from growing. We can always fight our demons and learn new experiences. It is only a piece of glass. Breaking it won’t kill us, it would only make us stronger.
Fadi Zaghmout 
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