Kintsugi

Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with precious metals. Once a master Kintsugi artisan is finished repairing a bowl, plate, or cup, the item becomes more valuable and more beautiful than it was before it was broken.

. . .

A musician friend of mine was recently fired, without warning and for no fault of his own, from a gig with a high profile artist. We talked on the phone the day after. He was angry, but the conversation didn’t devolve into bashing the artist.

My friend said “I’m grateful for having been on the gig for two reasons. The first is I got to watch a master of their trade (the artist) perform every night. I learned so much about what to incorporate into my craft from how he did his craft.

I’m also grateful because I got to watch him treat people poorly, and run his business poorly, and see the consequences of that. Now I know what not to do when I run my own business.”

. . .

When we’re wronged, broken, ripped off, snubbed, and put down, we get to choose what we put between the broken pieces.