If it ain’t great, why not make it better?

Any one of us can go to a store, or go online, and find anything that we want. And that’s pretty great, don’t get me wrong. But, many times, the objects themselves aren’t necessarily that great. They are all incredibly convenient.

As an example, I thought of something that I assumed was impossible to get and just looked online. Did you know that you can order loose emeralds? Yep, you can just search for loose emeralds and find several different websites that will cheerfully sell you some and ship them right to your front door. That’s so convenient that it’s almost laughable. Is it great? I genuinely have no idea. I have no need for emeralds, no use for emeralds, and no plans for emeralds. Might I get some anyway? They’re so laughably, casually convenient to purchase that I seriously might.

But, for most objects, whether ordered online or purchased in a store, they are at least mostly utilitarian. They might be cool. They might be funny. They might be decorative. But, mostly, they serve one or two purposes, and that’s about it.

And, if they get broken, then they almost certainly become useless.

That’s one of the things that I love about kintsugi, and wabisabi philosophy. Nothing is perfect. Everything is, to some extent, broken. But that doesn’t actually mean that they have to become useless. Indeed, the majority of the world and the people in it would be useless if that were the case.

Wabisabi, as I understand it, involves seeking benefits from imperfection, from some type of brokenness. Strength and beauty can come from imperfection, can come from brokenness. This is as true of people as it is of objects. Anyone who has ever had their heart broken knows that some serious strength develops in recovering from that undeniably imperfect experience.

Kintsugi is simply wabisabi applied directly to objects. Objects that are broken aren’t fixed, they are made better, made more beautiful and more precious, both aesthetically and physically.

My experiences in learning kintsugi have led me to some unconventional places. I don’t currently look for objects that are necessarily beautiful, but I don’t mind if I find things that are beautiful. I look for things that perhaps were once beautiful, once were loved and considered important, and, one way or another, cast aside. They might not be literally broken before I find them, but their original purpose has been broken. I find things at yard sales, estate sales, thrift stores of all types. Things that someone wanted once, that someone bought once, that someone cared for and used. And then, for one reason or another, they no longer wanted it, cared for it, or used it.

And then I hit those objects with a brick.