I don't need a reason for what I became

From a random profile:

Kintsugi (金継ぎ)

When the Japanese mend broken objects, they aggrandize the damage by filling the cracks with gold. They believe that when something's suffered damage and has a history it becomes more beautiful.

This is essentially the Barbara Bloom quote about the practice. I've spoken about kintsugi before, both here and on Twitter, I believe, and it's still something that's become one of my core values. Of course, I have no gold in my makeup, but I do believe that what has broken me in the past has not destroyed me. Everything I have gone through has shaped me into the person I am, good and bad, and while that gives me weaknesses, it also makes me stronger in some ways. And I do not hide my scars.



There's a LifeGate article that goes into the history of the practice, and names who first asked for it to be done. See also "What a Broken Bowl Can Teach Us", this essay on the practice from the Modern Gypsy blog, or Becca Risa Luna's article on the topic.



All I know is, it's a much better mental image for my bad days than stitches, sutures and wounds, and I think it's better for me, as well.

Moving on, an amusing bit of chat I wanted to share from a few days ago.

[14:18] Calla Iris Waydelich (callidus.waydelich): I agree with an observation I saw on the internet, about learning foreign languages.
[14:18] Violet Scrivener (violetscrivener): oh?
[14:18] Calla Iris Waydelich (callidus.waydelich): Latin: Words like "yes" and "no" aren't important, but let's memorize these 3,000 ways to kill you.
[14:19] Calla Iris Waydelich (callidus.waydelich): Greek: Okay, naughty children! It's participles time!
[14:19] Calla Iris Waydelich (callidus.waydelich): Egyptian of course is Ancient Pictionary
[14:19] Emilly Orr: HEE
[14:19] Calla Iris Waydelich (callidus.waydelich): French: Pronouncing every letter is for chumps.
[14:19] Emilly Orr: Gad, is there one for Welsh?
[14:19] Calla Iris Waydelich (callidus.waydelich): German: Let's combine all the words and make Onegiantfrankenword!
[14:20] Fleming Helfenstein (mountainhall) chortles
[14:20] Calla Iris Waydelich (callidus.waydelich): Mandarin: lol, what's a verb tense?
[14:20] Calla Iris Waydelich (callidus.waydelich): Spanish: LOL what isn't a verb tense!!
[14:20] Emilly Orr: I love these
[14:20] Calla Iris Waydelich (callidus.waydelich): English: Welcome to Hell.
[14:20] Violet Scrivener (violetscrivener) grins
[14:21] Emilly Orr claps
[14:22] Emilly Orr: English has also been described as the language that chases other languages down the alley, beats them up, and steals their words.
[14:22] Calla Iris Waydelich (callidus.waydelich): Yes!!
[14:22] Violet Scrivener (violetscrivener): I believe it.

I do. I'm still curious what this bit of the net would say about Welsh.