I really really like Japanese stuff. Their music, their anime, their technology, amongst other things. The other day, I came across a video about the Japanese art of kintsugi or "golden joinery" when translated into English. Kintsugi is the art of using lacquer made of precious metals, primarily gold, to repair broken pottery and ceramics. Most mending prectices attempt to cover up the cracks in the broken pottery, but kintsugi does the opposite. It flaunts them. The broken object is joined together so skillfully by that you can barely see how barely it was broken. All that can be seen is the beauty of the gold seems racing through it, as if Zeus of myth had hurled a golden lightening bolt through it. In fact it is so beautiful that some Japanese art collectors have been accused of purposefully breaking priceless ceramics to have them repaired with kintsugi.
Sometimes, we too are broken. Whether it be from family problems, stress at school or the much appropriately named heartbreak, we all feel like a piece of pottery that has been shattered. And, as time goes by, it heals our wounds. We dust ourselves off and continue walking. And, as is our nature, we attempt to cover our scars. It's conventionally considered to be embarrassing to let other people know that you screwed up in the past. We hide all our shameful mistakes and pretend to have never done anything wrong, so that we may appear to others the way the seem to us.
Well convention is wrong. There is no need to be ashamed of your past, even if you've done shameful things. What's the use in pretending to be who you are not. Like kintsugi, we need to flaunt our imperfections, not try to cover them up. They are what make us unique, one of a kind. They are what make us beautiful. What defines us is not how we fall, but how we rise. If we rise and try to hide our scars, then we say to the world we are ashamed of who we are. But if we rise, and we can proudly say that this is who I am and this where I have come from and what I have done, then everyone knows that you are proud to be who you are and that you hide no secrets.
Yes, you may regret some things you have done, and you don't need to be proud of them. You just need to be proud that you have risen from them. A ornament cannot be repaired with kintsugi if has not been broken first. Your bad decisions have shaped you as much as you good ones have. Let the world see the real you as you shine in all your golden glory. Perfection may be lovely, but imperfections are truly beautiful.
See you all tomorrow!
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