Kintsugi is a Japanese art of repairing ceramic pottery. When a bowl, a teapot or a vase breaks, they repair it and the repairs are done using molten precious metals such as gold. The cracks and repairs are not hidden, in fact they highlight the cracks proudly displaying the scars that the pot has sustained telling the story of its survival. Literally Kintsugi or Kintsukuroi means golden (kin) repair (tsugi).
We live in the world of disposables. We have disposable napkins, disposable coffee cups and disposable plates that we use in our children's birthday parties. We have disposable plastic bags when we shop, disposable plastic bottles to drink water from and disposable relationships.
The divorce rates have gone up in the last few decades. Old age homes are no longer considered to be a last resort. Battles between siblings for property is commonplace. Using disposable is not just hurting the environment and the ecology, it is hurting human culture. We have become more reckless, hasty and insensitive in our relationships. There is an attitude of disposability that is crept into our relationships.
In the apartment building that I stay in, there is a common problem. The tiles swell up and start cracking and popping up. My father just repaired his cracked tiles using white cement by himself instead of calling and paying for help and he taught me how to do it in the process. And he expects me to repair the broken tiles in my utility balcony by myself. Taking care of things, fixing them, repairing them is a virtue. It builds the attitude to take care of your life, relationships and your materialistic things. And it makes you more useful with your hands. I am 42 and my father is still taking me to school.