As an aside, I truly enjoyed this dinner not only because this couple makes a mean salad and are in general just really good people, but mostly because we had the kind of five hour conversation that people these days don't usually take the time to have.
It was during our conversation that I was reminded of the "Broken Glass Theory". For those who have never heard of it, the theory basically says that an old building with no broken windows will always look more appealing than a new building with one or more broken windows. And it's not so much about the windows being broken, because accidents happen, but more about how long the window is allowed to remain broken.
The idea is one of priority, image and assumption. A broken window suggests instability and carelessness. A broken window suggests abandonment and worthlessness, because if someone really cared about the building they would fix the window. If someone doesn't care enough about fixing the broken window, the image being presented is that the building is worthless and from then on, everyone who sees that building will see it as worthless.
We have a lot of broken windows in this country, both literally (just take a drive or walk through the old urban neighborhood in your town or city) and metaphorically. Quite a few of these windows have been broken for a LONG time and this, the nation has moved forward (whether consciously or subconsciously) with the belief that every agency or institution with long unattended broken windows is worthless.
Don't believe me? Take a second and think about all the parts of this country that are referred to as being "broken" or "in disrepair" and then ask yourself how often you or someone else have made a statement about those same things being "worthless" or "a lost cause". It happens everyday and it's happening right now as I write. Whether it's the Healthcare System, Public Education System, Justice System or the system of Government, once it is perceived to be broken and broken for a long time, people just stop caring.
As an antidote to the "broken glass" theory, I offer another insight that came from the same conversation (this is the kind of holistic conversation that happens when you give it five hours of time to grow organically). This couple lives in a very nice home which resides in a very nice neighborhood, but one day while taking a walk, the husband noticed some graffiti had been put on a stone wall in their yard. After the shock of the act wore off, he proceeded to fall into the kind of apathy that many people do when they feel powerless.
In the following weeks, the husband thought of a number of solution to his graffiti problem, like putting up shrubs or something to hide this wall now tainted with someone else's failed attempt at art. One day the husband comes home from work to see a gentleman painting over the graffiti on his wall. The husband had never met this man, knew nothing of him and yet here he was, doing his part to brighten up this couple's property. After speaking with this man for a few minutes, the husband comes to find out that his neighborhood has an association and the association oversees the betterment of the neighborhood through subcommittees like the "graffiti committee".
Upon finding out this information, the husband and wife immediately joined this association and became members of it's various committees, taking proactive steps to better their community that at first seem small, but say in the case of a graffiti-marked wall or maybe even a broken window, can make all the difference in the world.
While a little thing like a broken window can make a worthwhile place look worthless, all it takes is a little paint to turn a tainted wall of apathetic despair into a rallying cry for community engagement. Everyone talks about the ripples created by a pebble in a pond, but just as powerful is the movement going on under the surface, immediately shifting the foundation in ways most will never see.
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