Kintsugi (金継ぎ?) (Japanese: golden joinery) is the Japanese art of fixing broken pottery with a lacquer resin sprinkled with powdered gold.
“When the Japanese mend broken objects, they aggrandize the damage by filling the cracks with gold.
They believe that when something’s suffered damage and has a history it becomes more beautiful.”
Barbara Bloom
When I read this quote, I was immediately taken with the idea. I thought how wonderful it would be if this could be applied to people…broken, suffering, damaged people who have survived pain, heartache, loss. Survived and lived on as witness to their history, as a testament to the spirit of man, as a beacon to the rest of us.
What if all those who have been buffeted by life were filled with gold dust so that all those hurt places shown and glittered in the light? It would be like going to India and seeing the Holy Men in the streets, luminescent with their journey, aglow with the experience of living. I can visualize all the lines and crevices, all the wounds and scars being filled with precious metal. What a blinding light there would be!
Then think how wonderful it would be if those among us with the most mended parts were honored and revered for the wisdom gained, because of the beauty the struggle had created.