Wednesday 28 April 2021

X is for X #AtoZChallenge

Dear Readers,

Welcome to the last week of the #Blogging from A to Z  April Challenge 2021. My theme this year is based on the Japanese concept of Ichigo Ichie which means--"What we are experiencing right now will never happen again. And therefore, we must value each moment like a beautiful treasure."

Today, we look at a section of the book titled: 'The Cracked Pots."

I hope you'll enjoy being here.

Thank you.

Arti

In The Book of Ichigo Ichie, I came across an old Indian parable that I've heard before.
This illustration of 'A Water Carrier or Bhestie', however, 
is borrowed from www.oldindianarts.in
to help me with the retelling.

According to the parable, a water bearer carried two large pots of water to his master's house every day. One pot was perfect while the other had several cracks. As a result, the amount of water delivered by each pot was unequal. 

The cracked pot was ashamed of its inadequacy and one day decided to speak to the water bearer: 'I'm ashamed of myself. I want to apologise to you. Because of my cracks you can deliver only half my load and get paid only half the money.'

The water bearer smiled and told the pot to notice the path carefully on their way back. The pot noticed many beautiful flowers all along the path. 

"Have you noticed the flowers grow only on your side of the road?" the water bearer pointed out. "I've always known you are cracked...I planted seeds along the route we take, and you have watered them each day without noticing...If you weren't the way you are, with all your cracks, I would still be walking through a desert."
*****
As usual, I picked up the hefty Concise Oxford English dictionary today to look for  a word I'd be able to use in the title. I wanted something that would fit with the thought I had for today's post. 

I find rifling through pages of a dictionary yields more than searching online. A flick of a page and you're burrowing in different galaxies with all the back information on how that word came to be. Nothing can replicate the lost and found feeling of holding and reading a physical dictionary.

Occupying mere two pages of this heavy edition, X looked sparse. Then it didn't.

I had hoped to find something that would fit the idea of exclusion; a word that describes something being discarded because it's not perfect. I didn't find anything.

I was about to turn to E (for ex instead of  x) when this caught my eye and I smiled. I 'd found my X. 

Lying next to each other were these two (among other) uses of a cross-shaped written symbol
¬ to indicate an incorrect answer. ¬to symbolize a kiss 

Entries starting with the 24th letter of the alphabet occupy the least amount of space in the dictionary, but X turned out to be quite extraordinary on its own. Don't you agree? 

As a photography enthusiast, I often find that the pictures I make don't match the image in my head. Nine out of ten times, it's due to my limited technical knowhow. I don't like to read manuals. Doing is the way I learn. It's not the most efficient method but it suits me. Trial and error, they call it.

A lot of the times, a lot of my clicks have to be discarded. But, sometimes, the out of focus, blurry images like the cracked pot, turn out to be more beautiful than the perfect ones.


What do you think? 

So, next time, before you mark a mistake with an X, think about the water bearer's seeds and the kiss that lies right next to it on a page in an old, loved dictionary.

Trust your creative process. Be kind. The electric bulb lit up after many wrong turns. Turn your deserts into gardens with love, grace and forgiveness.

Is there an X you'd like to share?
Has an out of focus picture, a discarded project, an unloved piece of art made you jump with joy because in its incomplete, imperfect state it illuminated your stories and myriad mysteries more perfectly?

You know I'd love to hear, if you'd like to share.

This year, I'm participating in #BlogchatterA2Z  powered by theblogchatter.com 

37 comments:

  1. Absolutely. We have to trust the creative process...this reminds me of the Japanese art (I think) where they fill the cracks in a mug with gold....to highlight how every crack adds beauty to the cup...

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    1. You're right Arti. It's called Kintsugi and there's a lovely chapter on it in the book.

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  2. Hari Om
    Oh yes, I do like to try and work something from my 'unphotos'... usually by digital manipulation to create a different form of artwork. But some, like the one on today's My Take post, just turn out naturally uneXpectedly pretty! Love that parable... YAM xx

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    1. Just saw your pics. Love the eXceptionally beautiful street lights:)

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  3. Such a lovely parable! I have a whole lot of blurry photos, most of which were taken when zooming past. My dad finds it a little annoying to stop every 2 seconds because I want to take a picture of something, lol.
    X for me was tough this time, but managed to pull it off, thanks to our vast heritage. :D

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    1. My family will relate to your dad's annoyance:)

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  4. I love this story of the cracked pot and it can be told in so many different ways. Sometimes I make a recipe that I think looks yukky but it's actually tasty. I kinda cheated on the X today.
    Cheers,
    Crackerberries

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    1. I thought your X post was super Barbie.

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  5. Creation knows how to make something out of everything - imperfect of perfect.

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  6. This is such a fabulous post and speaks to me on all sorts of levels. You found a perfect X! "To mark a mistake. A kiss." Seriously, it's like the cosmos conspired to give you one big delightful wink! The tale of the cracked pot is wonderful.

    Your "imperfect" photo is magical - a real kiss. I love when I come across a blurred photo. They feel like special portals to me - as though we're able to catch a glimpse of something we cannot ordinarily see.

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    1. It was truly 'one big delightful wink' Deborah. I love the way you've put it. Now, I'll be looking for more naughty nudges in the future:)

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  7. "Daag achhe hain" -- is an Ad campaign, Launched in 2005, it is part of the global campaign ‘Dirt is good’ done by BBH. In India, Lowe Lintas is the agency behind the campaign. Here they shifted the focus from clean to dirt in other words, weakness into a strength & survived the competition. This is the first thing that came to my mind after I read your post. Brilliant parable.
    https://www.hardingmeyer.net/ - Harding Meyer is a German artist who had conducted a workshop in Katara,Doha & the face painting which you like was learnt under his guidance. He paints mostly portraits & mostly distorts faces. You may like to see those.
    We always tend to notice what is X, than what is right. How I wish I had remembered the poem which we were taught in my 9th grade,on imperfections. It's message did stay with me, that Imperfection is more attractive than its opposite, infact it is a part of perfection. And perfection is an illusion while imperfection is a reality. Sometimes, failures/mistakes teaches more important lesson than success.
    Btw I learnt an important lesson yesterday.

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  8. I don't recall who, but someone had narrated the cracked pot story to me regarding my daughter with special needs. Today after 25 years, I can tell you that she has bloomed the most beautiful flowers in my life. So true.

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    1. Thank you for sharing about your daughter Farida. It made me smile:) May she continue to blossom in her own special way.

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  9. A delighful story with a thought-provoking message. From kisses to crosses, X certainly gets around!

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  10. Your photos are both beautiful!
    There is a quilt pattern named Hugs and Kisses, XOXO ;)

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    1. Thanks Frederique. I googled to see the quilt pattern. It's adorable.

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  11. I'm going to start thinking of those x's a kisses instead of crosses from now on. Lovely ,essage.
    https://iainkellywriting.com/2021/04/28/the-state-trilogy-a-z-guide-x/

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    1. I think this is the best way to be. I'm going to save your comment to remind me when I get all uptight about perfection. Cheers Iain.

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  12. I think each one of us has a cracked pot avatar with our own imperfections....that's what makes us diverse and beautiful correct ?

    https://pagesfromjayashree.blogspot.com/2021/04/x-for-bellatrix-and-helena-bonham-carter.html

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  13. This made me think of a small black vase that my children accidentally broke. It was a clean break, in two pieces. So I glued it back together and covered the crack with opalescent glitter. It turned out so beautiful! After that, though, if they were warned, "Be careful or you might break that!" they responded with, "That's okay. Mom will make it look even prettier."

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    1. You were practising the Japanese art of Kintsugi, literally translated as golden joinery or repair, Trudy. No wonder the once broken vase looks even more beautiful now.

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  14. What a beautiful parable. We tend to discard imperfect things far too easily. Those imperfections often do lead to something incredibly special. I love antiques and objects that are handed down through generations - often with imperfections. In my kitchen, I have a rather rustic cabinet that was my great-grandfathers. I painted it red and lined the shelves and use it as my pantry now. People comment on it all the time. It's a piece of my family history. Weekends In Maine

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    1. I love the description of your rustic cabinet Karen.
      And you're absolutely right. Handed down objects can be so special. I cherish old pieces, too.

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  15. Sometimes mistakes do have the most beauty.
    I've heard the water pot story before, but it's always great to hear again. A wonderful lesson.
    I love letter X posts! Always such variety.
    It's hard to believe the blogging challenge is almost over. Then the after survey, reflections, and the road trip sign-up.
    Plus, I'm taking part in the Bout of Books read-a-thon in May. So much excitement!
    J Lenni Dorner~ Co-host of the #AtoZchallenge, OperationAwesome6 Debut Author Interviewer, Reference& Speculative Fiction Author

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    1. Thank you for visiting and for co-hosting the A to Z. It's always such a pleasure to participate.

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  16. Your post reminded me of a photo I took of myself at the end of a really bad day. I wanted to remind myself that I survived it. I kept that photo for a long time. When it had served its purpose, I deleted it.

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    1. I like that story Suchita.
      Thank you for sharing. Have a fab Sunday.

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  17. I'm inclined to assert that there is a mystic yearning within you to give utterance to an x, an unknown reality.

    X was that for me for a long time, an unknown quantity. In every math problem which sought to discover some unknown value, we'd start the solution with 'Let the unknown be x'....

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    1. Ha! HA! The ever elusive x. I could never find his value:)
      Thank you for your assertions--I'm smiling:)

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  18. You reminded me of the parable that I had long forgotten! ... Such a nice and meaningful one.!

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  19. I had read the cracked pot story before... And loved the way how you related it with the creative process. Now come to think of it... I usually like the snaps that I click just on the run... The out of focus ones or the ones not really intended but just clicked... Just like that...you are so right on this!

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