The Beauty in the Broken - Celebrating Cracks and Rumples
The Beauty in the Broken - Celebrating Cracks and Rumples
By a.d. elliott | Take the Back Roads - Art and Other Odd Adventures
Dear Henry,
The other day, I found a small, mushed flower and decided it was a work of art.
Ever since the accident, I’ve developed a soft spot for the bruised and the broken. When I realized this little flower had likely been overlooked precisely because it was rumpled and imperfect, it broke my heart a little. (Yes, yes, I got entirely too emotional about a flower.)
That softness has drawn me especially to the Japanese pottery repair method known as kintsugi, in which broken vessels are carefully reassembled and repaired with gold or other precious metals. The cracks are not hidden. They are highlighted, honored, and included in the piece’s story.
Kintsugi is more than a technique; it is a philosophy. It acknowledges that breakage and repair are not interruptions to a life’s story, but essential chapters worth recognizing.
Living that philosophy, however, is harder than admiring it.
The easiest way to wear damage is to accept the titles victim or survivor, labels I’ve never been comfortable with. They ask the world to focus exclusively on what broke, when I know, deeply and stubbornly, that I am, and always will be, more than that.
At the same time, it is exhausting to pretend nothing happened. To hide scars indefinitely requires a kind of performance I no longer wish to sustain.
This small, battered flower reminded me that there may be another way. I may never paint my cracks gold, but perhaps I don’t need to sand them down to invisibility either. I may, occasionally, let them be seen — not as definitions, but as evidence that I am still here.
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About the Author
a.d. elliott is a wanderer, photographer, and storyteller traveling through life
She shares her journeys at Take the Back Roads, explores new reads at Rite of Fancy, and highlights U.S. military biographies at Everyday Patriot.
You can also browse her online photography gallery at shop.takethebackroads.com.
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