EyesoftheWorld wrote:

Hi. I would approach the situation with an openness to the possibility this should have happened. I can't really speculate why, but maybe you'll be spared from something that would have been "unpleasant".

I don't mean to be contentious, Eyes, but I think the belief that something of this sort "should have happened" is at best a rationalization for an unpleasant situation that can't be satisfactorily resolved. Smacks too much to me of that trite and thoroughly annoying maxim, "It's all good." Sometimes, it's not the least bit good despite the insistence of those fond of reciting that statement that in the grander cosmic scheme of things, everything that happens is meant to be in ways we simply don't understand. Bullcrap! sez me. Sometimes, we simply are clumsy and damage treasured objects.

The best option as I see it is to choose how we're going to regard the fact that this occurred. In short, ignore the chip as an added discipline upon one's thoughts, use the chip as a focal point as sfatula suggests, discontinue trying to use the crystal for anything but decoration...or take it to Goodwill or consign it to the trash as irreparably damaged and an unpleasant reminder that you choose not to live with.

I can understand the aggravation though, b/c you paid a considerable amount, but at least it didn't shatter.

Myself, I'd tend to regard that as better. In that case, it's a matter of sweeping up the debris since its shattering renders it trash. At least, you'd be spared the kind of speculations that the OP is experiencing as to whether or not it's salvageable.

EyesoftheWorld wrote:

Hi Dot! I felt pretty sure I would be voicing a point of view that wasn't exactly natural for darkthroneofeth. I fully understand that it's not right for everyone and I don't think everybody necessarily should adopt my Taoist views. Everyone's views are fine as long as those views don't end up imposing on the rights or freedom of others in their own lives. Sound familiar?

Fine by me.

I think the phrase "this should have happened" was a poor choice of words, though the thought did occur that darkthroneofeth may well have been spared a traumatic experience.

Perhaps. That, however, is the sort of speculation that I find particularly pointless since we can't know whether or not something of the sort would ever have occurred. Well, unless a person is psychic, and even then, such predictions are not necessarily reliable when we consider all the possible choices between now and when this presumed trauma might occur which would result in its being altered, diminished or even avoided entirely.

I like the idea, and I'm pretty sure you have come across this notion, though I think it's supposed to be held by persons who have attained to a certain level, of interpreting every phenomenon as a particular dealing of God with one's soul.

Well, if you mean that in the sense of everything being the result of one's choices and of the effects of the choices of those around us, I can agree with you. However, I don't subscribe to the idea of any being somehow causing a person to drop a valuable object accidentally in order to convey the message that the person ought not to be using such or ought to be more careful. That sort of thinking is simply too anthropomorphic and parental as I see it.

"Live and learn" is a more rational view, IMO, which is what I alluded to earlier when I suggested that there appeared to be a variety of choices resulting from the ball's having become chipped.