Two images, side-by-side. The first is of a shard of window glass held against the sun. The second is of a yellow cat’s-eye marble held in the same position. The sky behind them is blue and crisscrossed with power lines. Both objects are speckled with dirt.
I found these two Things Made of Glass while digging in the garden today. I’m thinking now about how the same material, under different conditions and in different forms, can be sharp and a potential source of harm (I could have cut my finger on it), or smooth and a source of joy and pleasure (and a shared experience of play). A pretty broadly applicable principle, if you think about it. “Any tool is a weapon if you hold it right,” as the song goes. (Many years ago at social justice camp, someone asked, “shouldn’t it be ‘any tool is a weapon if you hold it wrong’?” and I’ve never stopped thinking about that.)
Andreae Callanan 