KINTSUKUROI

     Are you scratching your head now, wondering what the heck the title means? I did also until I read an explanation. It is a Japanese art of repair and meshes very well with the thinking of wabi-sabi, the respect, honor and appreciation of older things, items and thoughts that might be broken. Kintsukuroi goes a step further and is a great bullet thought for us today, here in this country and in the world.
      This art believes that a piece of pottery that has broken and then repaired is better than the original for the experience it has undergone, for the manner of repair and for the valuation of it by those who repair it. How repaired? The cracks are filled in with the most precious metal one can find and/or afford. Be it zinc, copper, brass, gold or silver - the repaired item is now more precious to its owner and more valued and treasured.
      This philosophy intimates that life experiences have meaning and importance. It holds on to the thought that a break or two does not make something - or someone - valueless, an item to be discarded and abased. It is the ultimate recycle, refurbish, renew mantra of the day and would work so well if all bought into it.
     How much better would it be if we all realized that one act of stupidity, one act of selfishness, one act of greed, does not make one irreparable, to be ignored, to lose all value in this society. It believes that like things, humans can also be repaired and come out better on the other side. Is that a pipe dream? Maybe, for some, but there is enough proof out there that if taken in hand, in  a fair and positive incarceration, a criminal can be turned around. It is even better if we are to avoid incarceration and fix that 'piece of human pottery' before that occurs. And yes, I am not a grown up Pollyanna and know that all things are not perfect, but how much better society would be if we but tried to do the right thing, to repair rather than to discard, to value rather than trash, to lend a helping hand rather than a kick in the ribs? Yes, and especially until we are proficient in the workings of such a program, there would be those who slip through this net of repair, but not as many as one would think, especially as the numbers of entrants would hopefully lessen as we catch the cracks before they shatter the vessel.
     Expensive? Oh, yes. But have you looked at the costs to society in terms of funds demanded, personnel required, and the absolute waste of warehousing people in a hopeless and violent world with apparently no redeeming features, no exits, no doors, no windows to open for fresh air and repair. How much more pleasant and clever is it to reuse that cracked item rather than throwing it and its values, its uses, its beauty, away.
     Unfortunately, our society does the complete opposite now, writing off whole groups of people, each seeing the other as a vessel too damaged, to cracked, to be repaired, no matter the metal used to do the fixing. It is said we all have our internal biases, and I agree with that, and so should we all if we are honest. There is NO group exempt from that. We are all damaged vessels, all needing repairs. If we were to work on that, rather than listen to a man who shouts so loud and in so hateful a voice, that all vessels who hear him too often, give way to their biases and allow their internal cracks to become external ones, how much better off we would be. Instead, we have what we have now, a man described by a former "thug" of his as  “a cheat, a liar, a fraud, a bully, a racist, a predator, a con man.”. Truly, this is a vessel that was cracked ajar in childhood, never repaired, even as the crack grew, until it was and is too late to fix. The only answer is to sideline him, remove him from the possibility of harming society even more, from cracking more vessels into non repair states of being. Even unto withholding the metal needed to fix them, the possibility of such being anathema to him. It would then limit his powers, and his abilities to impose himself and his greed and immorality upon others.
     Think of the numbers and the deeds. Statements to trash our Constitution. Words meant to subvert the meaning and the role of America. Support for murderous White Right Wing terrorists. Open statements of disparagement of our veterans, especially those who have given all they could, unto severe damage and death. A man with no morals.
      A man of the worst ilk around. A man who says we are "rounding a corner in the pandemic" even as the numbers grow, and we are now expected to hit 410,000 deaths by January 1. The numbers of infected grow until they are off the chart, even as we approach, now, seven million. Those are people, folks, not statistics. Imagine your neighborhood empty and the one next to it and on and on until most cities are empty and the countryside is deserted. These are people, fathers and sons. mothers and daughters, friends and neighbors, family. And no, vaccines unsupervised by true scientists, experts in their field, will only kill more of us, perhaps his ultimate goal.
       Wabi-sabi and kintsukuroi- a winning combination? If only we would try. Let us reach out and fix, rather than shatter. Let us at least recognize that we are all imperfect vessels, all needing to be repaired and valued for what we are and can be. Better than to be thrown away onto the heaps of discards of our society. Which philosophy is better for you and me, for all of us, for our kids? 
     And certainly, use the metal known as voting, once, the right way, fairly and legally and place this irreparable vessel on the sidelines where he can cause no more harm. We can then try to repair the damage he has done to the vessel of a civilized and progressive society. Kintsukuroi.