Kintsugi Breaks The Plate

There's an art to repairing broken parts with grace.

A cracked plate need not be discarded; a bowl can have a second life.

Kintsugi is a Japanese art that uses gold to reseal and rejoin the shards of broken crockery. Gorgeously.

I've heard this method used as a metaphor for people too – the fissures can be repaired, you can heal a broken soul and the cracks become beautiful.

But here's the thing – I believe in the process, you know I do, I truly believe that pain creates the space for depth and beauty – but people omit that the process of kintsugi is not just curative.

The bowl that has undergone this process is no longer foodsafe: it can't be used for its purpose, just something for people to look at.

If you make a feature of your trauma, if you let it define you, let it become your identity — if you are too purposeful with your trauma then it becomes your purpose.

Your hurt is more important than your function.

You have become ornamental.

Kintsugi repairs, but in the process breaks the plate.