Who Cares - What Matters
Our Song is individual
Our Song is varied
Our Song has different tunes
Our Song has multiple verses
Our Song has different meanings
But Our Refrain
OUR REFRAIN
is the same
We are walking each’s other Home
WE ARE WALKING EACH’S OTHER HOME
N E V E R
n e v e r
NEVERMORE TO BE EVER ALONE
It’s not so much a question you want to have asked of you
AS ANSWERED:
Honestly:
ARE YOU BROKEN. . . ?
Shattered
Splattered
Splittered
Shredded
Shambled
Smashed
Shared
K I N T S U G I E D
Wait. . .
What is KINTSUGI ?
KINTSUGI is an ancient Japanese method of repairing broken porcelain that uses gold to fill the cracks. It kind of reminds me of the Leonard Cohen’s famous lyric, “there is a crack in everything and that is where the light comes in.” For some reason when I pictured being cracked up inside, I tended to feel a harsh wind coming in, not the light. YOU?
This method of restoring breakage with gold is called Kintsugi (also known as Kintsukuori) and translates as “golden joinery.” I did some quick research and discovered that Kintsugi is an outgrowth of the Japanese philosophy of Wabi-Sabi, which honors the beauty of imperfections.
The Kintsugi artisan uses gold or other precious metal mixed with epoxy to repair the broken piece. This method emphasizes, rather than hides, the breakage. The repaired piece is often considered even more beautiful than the original.
Kintsugi embraces the breakage as part of the object’s history, instead of something unacceptable to be hidden or thrown away. This is kind of the opposite of what we all have been taught. Haven’t we spend LIFETIMES learning that we are supposed to be perfect, and that we must hide any imperfections. This belief is imbedded in our culture: if something is broken, toss it out; if something is flawed, hide it.
Kintsugi is the perfect metaphor for how we might be able to find healing in a life that for a long time, often seems not only cracked, but broken apart—and, in a few places, shattered beyond recognition. . .
BUT WAIT. . .
IT CAN ACTUALLY NOT ONLY GET BETTER
BUT BE BETTER:
There are three types of Kintsugi repair. The first level is when all pieces are available and the cracks are filled with gold to restore the piece.
The next level is when small pieces are missing. Those areas are completely filled with gold:
Last, when large areas of the piece are missing or shattered beyond repair, the artisan will take fragments from unrelated pieces to create a patchwork design. This is the one I identify with the most:
Below are some of my GO TO POEMS and quotes that have brought me a CALMING COMPLETEDNESS
along with an ongoing Kintsugi
that’s more a part of us
than we’ve ever been able to notice. . .
The Guest House by Rumi
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
Meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.
Be grateful for whatever comes.
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
—Copyright 1997 by Coleman Barks. All rights reserved.
From The Illuminated Rumi.
Love your crooked neighbor
With all your crooked heart.
—W.H. Auden
The sun never says to the earth,
“You owe me!”
Look what happens
with a love like that—
It lights the whole sky.
—Hafiz
Summer Day
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
—Mary Oliver
Otherwise
I got out of bed
on two strong legs.
It might have been
otherwise. I ate
cereal, sweet
milk, ripe, flawless
peach. It might
have been otherwise.
I took the dog uphill
to the birch wood.
All morning I did
the work I love.
At noon I lay down
with my mate. It might
have been otherwise.
We ate dinner together
at a table with silver
candlesticks. It might
have been otherwise.
I slept in a bed
in a room with paintings
on the walls, and
planned another day
just like this day.
But one day, I know,
it will be otherwise.
—Jane Kenyon
Quotes:
You may not find a cure, but you can still receive healing.
—Michael Lerner, Co-founder of Commonweal Cancer Help Center, Bolinas, California
It does not really matter what we expect from life, but rather what life expects from us. We are being questioned by life, hourly, daily, moment by moment. Our answer—to respond with right action and right conduct.Life ultimately means, taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems, and to fulfill the tasks which are constantly set for each individual.
—Viktor Frankl
Viktor Frankl taught that everything can be taken from us but one thing—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances. We cannot change these circumstances of being human, (pain, illness, loss and death)but we can change our minds and thoughts.
There is no enemy. We have stopped fighting anything and anybody.
The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous
Be kind whenever possible.
It’s always possible.
—Dalai Lama
. . .and finally my humble offering, A LEAKY VESSEL
More than nicked up
scratched
cracked
I’m a leaky vessel
often just
dripping some goodness
secreting badness
each step on my Way
for some other
Traveler of the Path
to be quenched
moistened
along their Way
as they, too
d r i b b l e
on. . .
Y E S
We’ve all felt like a cheap confetti
all cut up
not all together
blowing away forever in the wind
never to be
never to feel
connected
completed again
until we get
K I N T S U G I E D
A GOLDEN JOINERY AWAITS US ALL
. . .are you ready?
Pssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssst:
you don’t have to be. . .
it’s happening, anyway;
Why not recognize it
. . .be a part of
I T
IT IS ALL THE NEWS
and it’s rocking
E V E R Y T H I N G
and
E V E R Y O N E
and it’s asking one of the most important questions ever
asked in any one of our lives:
You can’t find a newscast that doesn’t speak of it
and it’s rare now not to see it being reported
and highly written
and spoken of. . .
Out of all of the articles I read
the one that has stayed with me
and rocked my unevenly world the most
is this one out of the Washington Post
By David Ignatius ColumnistFeb. 25, 2020 at 7:03 p.m. EST
Doctors have been preparing for 15 years for “the big one,” a pandemic that will rock the global public health system like an earthquake. Now, with the rapid spread of coronavirus, it may be happening.
This viral outbreak probably won’t look like anything that most of us have seen. Some schools may be closed; sports schedules will be modified; travel plans will be shelved; and some workers will be advised to stay at home and telecommute. The infrastructure for delivering food and other essentials will be stretched.
U.S. public health officials on Tuesday warned of the “inevitable” spread of the virus in the United States. “It’s not a question of if this will happen but when this will happen and how many people in this country will have severe illnesses,” said Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. Statements like that sent the financial markets into a swoon for a second-straight day.AD
Doctors are caught between the obligation to alert the public and the desire to avoid a panic. The World Health Organization warns of an “infodemic” in which bad information and rumors amplify the danger. Misinformation can spread faster than the disease.
Back in 2006, the United States issued its first “National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza Implementation Plan,” updated regularly since. That first version contained this stark admonition: “Uncertainty during a pandemic will drive many of the outcomes we fear, including panic among the public, unpredictable, and unilateral actions by governments, instability in markets, and potentially devastating impacts on the economy. The need for timely, accurate, credible, and consistent information that is tailored to specific audiences cannot be overstated.”
Google, Facebook and Twitter, the private guardians of the information space, have been working to keep it sanitary. Twitter has been trying to ensure that #coronaovirus delivers “credible, authoritative information.” Facebook is removing inaccurate information about the disease. Google is making verified, fact-checked information prominent in search results.AD
The WHO, meanwhile, is publishing simple “myth busters.” Examples: Do garlic or sesame oil prevent infection? No. Is it safe to receive mail from China? Yes.
Health authorities so far have mostly been taking the right steps. The virus was quickly sequenced genetically, vaccines are already being developed and epidemiologists are closely monitoring the spread. Doctors in Wuhan, China, where the virus began, have carefully mapped the early cases and mortality rates. The number of new cases in China has dropped sharply, which is encouraging.
Doctors caution that people should focus on the basics of good health: Washing your hands regularly is a better preventive measure than wearing a face mask; getting a flu shot is essential; if someone gets sick, they need supportive care while their own immune system fights the virus.AD
Health officials have tried to check the epidemic with screenings, lockdowns and quarantines. But these have had limited effect. Some travelers who arrived in Germany from Wuhan and tested negative for the virus were later found to be infected. Some clusters, in Iran and Italy, have mysterious origins. As much as doctors are learning about the novel disease, there’s much that still puzzles them.
The politics of this crisis matter. China was initially slow to react because officials there wanted to suppress bad news; Iranian authorities, similarly, may have undercounted cases initially in a cluster there.
This is a moment when expert advice is essential to calm fears and develop effective treatments. But the viral outbreak comes at a time when the body politic is weakened in America and abroad by populist politicians and rumormongers. Analysts have warned about “The Death of Expertise,” as a recent book by Thomas M. Nichols put it. There has been a backlash against vaccinations and other public health measures around the world.
We sometimes say that a global crisis — a catastrophic natural disaster, say — could unite the planet and encourage everyone to pull together. With coronavirus, we’ll have a test of that proposition. This outbreak is manageable with good medicine, good information and global cooperation. But it’s going to be a bumpy ride for a while.
Sometimes
it’s not so much what we include
as that we are
all included
Is THIS
the TIME
when you aren’t so much choosing
as being chosen
to be fully
scarily included
instead of excluded
and the biggest question of all:
WILL IT MAKE A DIFFERENCE
Make no mistake about this. . .
FOR WORSE
OR BETTER
we are all on the same road
either walking each other home
Or running around amok
away from one another
only to find out
we’re way closer
T O G E T H E R
than farther apart. . .
Q U E S T I O N:
WILL IT TAKE A DISEASE
TO HEAL US ALL TOGETHER?