Ups and downs are a part of life. The ability to accept failures, learn lessons from them, and persevere that is what makes all the difference. In this regard we can learn valuable lessons from the Japanese art of Kintsugi, golden repair. The story goes that a favourite tea bowl of a 14th century Shogun broke. It was repaired with its pieces clamped together crudely. The result was an ugly contraption. Instead of attempting to conceal the breakage, artisans then decided to highlight them with precious metals. Now, every time you looked at the bowl, you were reminded that it had broken; however, you were also intrigued and noticed the embellishments and realised that the bowl was whole again. You now longer cried over the broken bowl, on the contrary it had now become unique with these adornments. Thus, its very appearance had changed.
Kintsugi, in effect, acknowledges the breakage and makes a bold statement – ‘yes, break I did, but I am not broken.’ It is a metaphor for life. There is beauty in imperfection, too. Like it is said, imperfection does not mean inadequacies. It is just a statement of you having accepted your imperfect self.
Accepting one’s imperfections makes a person humble and less judgmental of others. You become a better being. As Jhumpa Lahiri says, “Imperfection inspires invention, imagination, creativity. It stimulates.”
