Beyond Kintsugi

I returned to work from winter break today to learn that my plant had been knocked down, and the pot and saucer both badly broken. I didn't find this out by seeing the broken pot. The philodendron looked completely normal, sitting on its regular spot on my desk. The only thing different about it was the there was a note tucked under it. A custodian (that's how he signed it, though later we met him and I learned his name) had toppled the plant and broke it, and he felt terrible. He wanted me to know, and he wanted to apologize. But he did more than that; he fixed it. Using Krazy Glue he made the clay pot and drip tray both look remarkably close to good as new. It reminded me of the Japanese art called Kintsugi, in which gold is used to seal cracks and make something shattered more beautiful and whole than it was before it was broken.But this act of repairing and relating was done with such a contrite, and kind heart that it was far better than gold for me.