Salutations,
I am struggling through the recent suicide of an associate of mine, leaving only two of my unit from my time in service known as surviving in tandem with me. Most of us came home from Afghanistan, most not all, but very few of us could survive the deadly hand of memories torn. As I reflect upon the memories of a person who I was not close to but wished I was able to help I found myself reflecting on both their positive and negative traits and I wished to express here not the person but something I discovered in life through my journey as a traumatically injured combat US military veteran that can be applied in everyday life. Doing this post I admit is a bit for myself, but I wanted to share.
"Beauty in the Flaw"
This is what I call this belief. I was raised as many are, to seek a form of perfectionism... but I could never achieve that perfection and thus always felt either I or even others I held to my standards... loved ones or not, to be less then what I felt they could be. All too often as a young man if someone was not conforming to within a certain degree of what I considered a perfect looking individual for instance, that they were not worth my time. That changed quickly when I joined the military at 17 and learned that everyone has something to offer. But I wish I could say that I was flawless in that even, but I was not. But before I get too far afield..... beauty in the flaw....
This is the discovery that the beauty of life, indeed that of creation.... is not how perfect things are but how imperfect they are and how through that imperfection they create beauty. To be without flaw is to be immutable, and this impossible. In art we call things with flaws to be character, and we strive to not learn just about the flawless form of things but even those that are ugly as they show us the breath of creation.
While I was in the hospital, after losing my hearing after a sort of stress related blowout of veins in my brain to neck junction.... I remember doing something in the hospital that many of its inhabitants do everytime of the year that I was there during. It was cherry blossom season in Japan, where I was.... and because I could not speak Japanese I was housed with the elderly during my recovery. We would journey to look for the most beautiful cherry blossom to preserve in our books. But the thing was... I never could.
When I got out of the hospital, a movie came out called the Last of the Samurai (2003) and the part of the movie where the samurai warlord was looking for the perfect sakura(cherry blossom) to ring true to my heart. When he was dying in the movie.... as his vision blurred and the winds slowed to his dying eyes.... he saw the truth, they are all perfect. It is quite possibly the most beautiful moment in the movie to those who understand this concept.
The Beauty in the Flaw is being able to see the flaws of a person, thing, or aspect of creation and realize how beautiful it is because of it. Realizing that, that very flaw is what makes it unique and special..... allows you to access the greater beauty of what something or especially someone is. Who or what among all creation is perfect? I challenge the concept that we must be perfect or strive for it, but that we should respect the flaws that bring out the beauty inherent in us all.
Respectfully,
Jonathan R. Clemons
I will always miss my fallen comrades, my brothers and sisters ..... I hope peace comes to you.
No matter your flaws, you are beautiful because of them..... and because of them and who you were, I love all of you.
