Paulo Coelho reminds us in the story of the cracked jar that we can create much that's good by simply trying, as Leonard Cohen advises, to "ring the bells that still can ring..."
Such prophets of the minor key know that there is indeed a crack in everything, and that we should therefore see everyone as our neighbour. As Alain de Botton puts it:
"Beneath the sober appearance society demands of us, most of us are going a little out of our minds - giving us a cause to hold out a hand to our comparably tortured neighbours." - Status Anxiety, p180