Wabi-sabi: The Japanese Concept for the Beauty of Imperfection
Desires to achieve perfection. What is the point of all this effort?
Everything that is flawless appears "unapproachably cold" to me. A face with no flaws, no moles, no acne, and no disproportion. A perfect apple with no curvatures or blemishes. Or, a person who has never made a mistake in his life, who cannot afford to make a mistake, and who refuses to accept one. Those are beyond my consciousness’ zone of living a real life. Those perfectly perfect creatures belong to another planet, I believe.
All of these perfectionist efforts lead me to believe that there is a major flaw lurking behind the scenes. I'm not sure why, but I don't believe there is any reason to strive for deadly perfection unless there is a compelling reason.
I don't mean to imply that we shouldn't wish for and strive for better. On the contrary, I am the type of person who writes word for word, sentence by sentence, until I find the best one, until I find the phrase that most resonates with me. In fact, it takes me at least half a day to complete one of these essays. What I criticize is that those who want to get close to "going out of nature's limits of beauty" or even being dangerous enough to be the best do so when they have already achieved quite well in a subject.
In fact, this state of artificial perfection also exists in our sense of aesthetics. At least in Japanese culture, it does, and fortunately, it does.
In fact, the instinct to seek flaws in this state of artificial perfection exists in our aesthetic sense as well. At least in Japanese culture, and thankfully, it does.
In Japanese, wabi-sabi refers to the beauty of the imperfect. We've all heard how important the Japanese place on simplicity and details. Geisha faces with perfect make-up, young girls dressed in small metal shoes, tea ceremonies... Each of these is one-of-a-kind. However, wabi-sabi believes that every beautiful thing has a flaw. Perhaps it's the art of accepting the flaws.
I wrote a short essay about the beauty of imperfection about a year ago. It just occurred to me, and I can still say that sentence with great conviction:
Perfection is like a sharp peak that we long to reach, but we leave behind unique bits of our natural being as we climb.
It's been a long time since I stepped off that heavy train on its way to the grandiose castle of perfection. And I have no regrets at all.
While being human and having the right to live on Earth is a wonderful opportunity in and of itself, wouldn't it be the most wonderful thing in the world to honor this opportunity?
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