the glass is broken

There has been a lot (too much maybe) written about the tragic shooting last week of 6 people in the Arizona shopping center.

One interesting article from CNN Opinion called:

Why does it take tragedy to unify us?

http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/01/12/greene.civility/index.html?hpt=C2

the part of the discussion--

A consensus seems to be forming: We can do better.

It would be a shame if we were to forget that. Phil Jackson, the enormously successful basketball coach, has a theory that he likes to talk about both in public, and in quiet private conversations. He has made himself something of a student of the philosophies of the world, some of them modern, some of them ancient. One of them stands out enough that he chooses to verbalize it at certain times.

He says that we should not look at a glass and regard it as half full. We should not look at a glass and regard it as half empty.

Rather, Jackson says, we should look at the glass and imagine that it is already broken.

If we imagine the glass -- if we imagine life -- as being shattered before it really is, then we can remind ourselves to regard it as precious and to treat it with care and tenderness.