2/17/2024 0 Comments Free Broken Pieces![]() There is value to others in the pain and shame of having to start over at 55. More recently, as a guy who lost his job and spent an extended period of time unemployed, I have been able to have conversations with many others who have experienced or are experiencing job loss or job transition. There is value to others in the brokenness of losing my father at 14. I was able to tell them you’ll never get over it but the pain eases and you learn to cope and have a new normal. One of the first questions always seemed to be, “what does your dad do?” Answering that question was always awkward. I was able to tell them about meeting new friends at college, sitting around eating pizza and getting to know each other. I was able to tell them what it was like to be a high school athlete and to come up out of the locker room after a game and see all my teammates being patted on the back by their dads telling them what a great job they did and rushing quickly to get outside. A few years ago I had the opportunity to visit with two young men ages 14 and 17, almost the same ages as my older brother and I when our dad died, who had recently lost their dad very suddenly. That’s a huge crack in my life that has caused a lot of pain over the years. If you have read my blog before you know my father died very suddenly when I was 14. ![]() If we are willing to explore our brokenness we can often find that we are far more valuable because of our brokenness ![]() It takes courage to let others know about our brokenness. We often perceive that others have thrown us away and we have no value because of being broken. ![]() Most of the time we do our very best to cover them up and not let others know about them. With kintsugi the piece becomes far more valuable, interesting, and beautiful than it was originally. In our culture we, in most cases, would simply throw the shattered item away. Rather than simply throw the piece away, or do one’s best to cover up the cracks and blemishes, kintsugi celebrates and highlights the broken pieces. ![]() The idea behind kintsugi is to recognize and celebrate the history of an object. It’s a Japanese method for repairing broken ceramics using adhesive materials mixed with gold, silver, or platinum. ![]()
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