Tempered glass is so lovely when it shatters.  When it stays in one piece like this.  I posted another version of this about a month ago, with a face peering through, but I might like the unaltered version even better.

Broken glass almost always gives you an opportunity to take a great picture.  The edges of the glass and the way it catches the light are always interesting.  Avoiding injury is paramount, but the sheer randomness of glass is fascinating.

A story from an art history class in college:  can’t remember who the artist was, but he had made some fabulous painting which was being shipped to the US for exhibition.  To protect its fragile nature, it was packed between 2 huge thick panes of tempered glass (like above).  When the crate was being unloaded at the dock, it fell off the crane and the crate was damaged.  The artist was summoned immediately and was present when the crate was opened to check for damage.  Sure enough, the glass protecting the painting had shattered into intricate patterns all over the painting.  The artist began to weep copiously and when he could finally speak, he gasped out “I always felt the work was incomplete — now it is perfect”.

Sometimes a little randomness is just what we need to make everything fall into place.