Broken and Beautiful

One would never know when entering the quiet unpretentious neighborhood with large trees casting giant shadows over narrow streets the magic that takes place inside a steamy garage of 905 Littlewolf Lane.

My friend Valerie lives inside the house with the garage – steamy-hot not only during the sweltering Florida summers but also during the shortened winter days when all true Floridians don their musty ski jackets to compliment their flip flops worn over mismatched ‘cold weather’ socks.

It was Valerie who first introduced me to Kintsugi, the Japanese art of fixing broken pottery with precious metals, like gold, silver or platinum.  She explained to me that in this ancient art rather than trying to effect the repair in such a way in order to minimize the visibility of the breaks, the artist actually accentuates them, considering the vessel all the more beautiful not despite of its brokenness but because of it.

The brokenness and the repair process thus become a part of its history, its beauty and the testimony to its continued usefulness despite the damage.

Such artistic approach as well as the philosophy of life is quite contrary to the imaginary standard of flawless perfection often espoused in our world.

I admit I am the first one to ditch the dinged, broken, old or simply out of style things. I’ve gotten to a place where I  simply don’t have time, energy or motivation to work on repairing anything.

It’s just not worth the trouble, I explain.

It’s cheaper to get it new, start fresh, I argue.  

Perhaps this is why the old Japanese tradition became so fascinating to me. 

I can't help but marvel who in this fast-paced, hi-tech, perfect-is-good-enough world of ours has time for such a thing??

Who possesses the patience, the thoughtfulness, the attentiveness, skill, wisdom and LOVE for such tedious, laborious, honesty wasteful process?

What kind of person do you have to be to find joy and satisfaction in the repairing what others deem unrepairable? 

Mending what most dismiss as the unmendable?