Reasons why you shouldn't throw stones in glass houses
It doesn't really matter if you live in the Southern or Northern hemisphere, because everyone has heard of the saying "People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones". American singer-songwriter Billy Joel immortalized this saying in a hit song that he released in March 1980. You could even hear the sound of glass breaking in the background at the start of his song "Glass Houses". There's are multiple reasons why a person shouldn't even consider throwing stones in glass houses.
There are so many other valuable things that you could end up breaking into pieces other than windows, regardless if they are regular or expensive stain glass windows. You certainly don't want to break a mirror, which will bring you seven years of bad luck. By throwing stones around you could risk breaking glass table tops, reading glasses, television screens, light bulbs, plates, drinking glasses, mugs, and an assorted collection of glass and porcelain kitchen accessories.
There are glass bottles for beer, wine, liquor, and soda, which make a big mess when they break. What even makes a bigger mess is when pickle jars, jelly jars, spaghetti sauce jars, mayonnaise jars, and other condiment jars and containers end up getting broken and smashed. It's almost impossible to get mustard and ketchup stains out of your carpeting and furniture.
There are fancy glass figurines, glass fronts on computer monitors, and glass panels in picture frames protecting your favorite photographs that you don't want to break. A broken perfume bottle may smell good at first, but it's a mess and the smell takes forever to go away. You may not have to worry about glass marbles breaking, however there are so many other glass items in a home that's it almost impossible to cover them all here. Not to mention all of the other breakable items that you have sitting around in your home.
Throwing stones outside of your house may not exactly be the brightest idea either. You might end up breaking a headlight on your car, or what's even worse, something in your neighbor's yard. You can do some real damage with a full beer can as well, trust me I know from experience. However skipping a stone across a pond or calm river can be a lot of fun, especially when it works well multiple times.
Now that we've covered just about everything that can break in your house, let's take a look at what this saying really means in life. People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones, actually has absolutely nothing to do with throwing stones or other objects inside or outside of your house.
The term - "people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones", actually means people should not criticize other people for faults that they have themselves. It doesn't have anything to do with throwing stones, natural rocks or kidney stones around in a glass house. After all you couldn't afford the heating bill in the Wintertime or the air conditioning bill in the Summer time if you lived in a glass house. This is all just something that I was thinking about that I decided to put into some words. Have a nice day :)
Do you believe that breaking a mirror brings you seven years of bad luck?
Comments
My ex son-in-law has the senseless habit of always criticizing others for the numerous unsettling character traits that exist in his own self. I used the glass house analogy to him one day to make a point and he responded with a remark that to me was ludicrous. He said he didn't know anything about glass houses -- only real ones. Figure that one out. :-)
My son and I love to throw rocks, especially into water. But he is restricted from throwing them in the house. hihihi I often think of this saying when I feel critical, great job here.
I remember my mom always saying that, for years I thought she was going to start throwing stones! lol! I had to laugh at your question, do you think breaking a mirror is bad luck? I sat there for a few minutes and thought about it, then had to add, can I have a third choice? Not sure! lol!
I enjoyed following your train of thought. Sometimes people don't even realize what their house is made of when they pick up a stone. Hmmm.
Great article. I am embarrassed to admit that I never understood what the saying about glass houses meant until now.
People never think about the things they say and how it will affect others. Picking up that stone is easy. Deciding to put it down, much harder
It's too easy to criticise other people even when we are criticising them for things that we sometimes do too. I suppose criticising makes the person doing it feel better about themselves.
That's a humorous way of getting a point across. Some people, especially if they have inferiority complexes, have a habit of trying to build themselves up by tearing others down.
Hi. Effective elaboration of a popular saying. You have focused on negative mentality that gets reflected through criticism, nice. Its true that the critics have to face the same harsh words with which they had degraded others. Thanks for sharing.
Very humerous buildup TheHoleStory. I don't think breaking a window brings seven years of bad luck but you certainly aren't in the greatest of moods to commit the act.
What an amusing hub! The figurative meaning is so true. No point in judging or criticizing outhers when we all have our own faults. The photo is interesting as I have never seen a literal house of glass. The beginning of the hub is humorous by taking the saying literally, voted up+ and shared.
I agree that we shouldn't criticize others when we have our own faults. And yet, people always end up doing that in the magazines and newspapers and blowing them way out of proportion.
Great advice and beautifully written explanation of slang cultural nomenclature that westerners use a lot. It clears up a lot of the meaning behind a popular phrase. ~cb
Great twist on an old cliché. Love the photo. Well done and voted up.
I like your analogy - that was really interesting! I try to avoid criticizing others before I know them, but in the event that I do, I make sure it's related to their performance (not them as a person). However, I would agree that we shouldn't throw stones if we can help it. After all, no one is perfect. Thanks for a cool Hub!
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