The Japanese art of kintsugi is repairing pottery with gold adhesive so that something broken does not need to be discarded, and its cracks and flaws are highlighted as something worthy and beautiful. I've long admired the concept of kintsugi, as it's often used in modern psychotherapy as a comparison for us as people. Our trauma and our flaws need not be buried, but can be seen as simply a part of our whole.

At the same time though, I've sometimes rebelled at the idea, though I didn't know why. So when I came across this poem by Robert Bly, I saw the idea of "wholeness" differently.