Kintsugi Dream

I am considering this an Artist's Proof and am already working on the final edition, which is, I hope, going to be awesome :)

I dreamed about Kintsugi a while ago. In January, I think. It was one of those dreams that stay with you and nudge you toward something, a gift from the unconscious.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the term, Kintsugi is a Japanese art, whereby pottery is mended using gold or platinum. In our commercial, capitalist, throw-away culture, it shows a reverence for the broken, instead of a discarding.

To me, it is a powerful metaphor for healing...not a complex symbol to process. It's dated in the future, healing takes time...

In a discussion with a rather opinionated individual a few months ago, I defended the fact that I find the broken-mended more beautiful than the untouched and unsullied.

He strongly disagreed. But I stand by my preference - I see something infinitely beautiful in things or people that have survived destruction, trauma, disintegration and desolation, to find the hope, the will to live, and slowly and carefully pick up the pieces one by one, reassemble and readhere them, and reclaim themselves, becoming stronger and somehow more than they were before.

This is how we grow, it's how we learn, it's how we find things like kindness and compassion both within and for ourselves.

The people I admire and revere the most have all got Kintsugi souls.

I hope one day to be one of them. - Niki McQueen