“You live in a deranged age, more deranged than usual because in spite of great scientific and technological advances, man has not the faintest idea of who he is or what he is doing.” — Walker Percy
A Note From International Arts Movement
Fall is here! Crisp winds, crunchy leaves, and turning colors… seemingly overnight. For the first few weeks, it’s bliss. The humidity and heat subside and the sun is perfect in the morning. I sit on my porch and drink my morning coffee and think that, quite simply, there is nothing better. And while that may be true, the illusion is shattered fairly quickly with the arrival of the first email and the slow slide into the stress of the day.
I spoke to some recent college graduates about work recently, and, relatedly stress. I tried to share a delicate balance with them: I believe that we are called to work, but all work is not fun. Work will not always bring joy or purpose, despite what we may hope. It’s in these moments that we have two distinct paths (as I see it): we either dig our heels in and search for meaning and purpose among the muck and the mire, or we accept the fact that this one area of our life cannot possibly bring us the deepest sense of meaning and satisfaction that we long for (and were created to want) and so we move on to other, different pursuits.
I’m not sure there is a right answer to this dilemma, other than to say it probably depends on the circumstances and context of the particular situation. Some people may not have the freedom to leave their work and others may be able to step away and figure out what is next. Most of us have to work in some way or another. What I am saying is this: when work does fall short of our expectations, it reveals gaps in our lives. We can either fill those gaps with more work (in attempt to imbue more meaning into our current workload) or we can look at the gaps as an opportunity to practice something else, perhaps culture care related.
Rather than see the gaps as a sign of need or want, we might consider them things to be filled with joy and goodness and beauty and truth in a new form. Something unexpected that we may have discovered otherwise.
A Note From Makoto Fujimura, Founder of IAM Culture Care
Dear Culture Care-ers
We now have a Twitter and Instagram site @IAMCultureCare!
See sample tweets of late…
I am happy to announce that I will be having a small exhibit (one new painting, prints and drawings) at Princeton Seminary’s Erdman Center starting mid Sept through Nov. Please check out our social media feeds for events related to this exhibit. We are also preparing a fairly comprehensive exhibit at Berry College in Georgia starting next January.
Haejin and I recently came back from the Dominican Republic for a Kintsugi-Peace Making journey. In partnership with Culture Care Creative, Inc, we are bringing the healing art of Kintsugi to the key areas around the world. Here’s what Haejin speaks of the vision of our Kintsugi journey (Haejin coined the term “Kintsugi-Peace Making”):
The vision of Academy Kintsugi is generational “Kintsugi-Peace Making”. Kintsugi-Peace is the beauty and justice, and ultimately New Creation, brought out of fractures and conflicts by the courageous and generative community of makers. Every fracture is an opportunity to make into the New. In this regard, Kintsugi is applicable from broken tea ware to a fractured relationship to a victim of violence or to a historical conflict zone. It is a common language to convey the work of justice and beauty to the most vulnerable to the most powerful. In Dominican Republic, Academy Kintsugi offered the beginning of our Kintsugi journey to the front-line workers of justice fighting sex-trafficking, one of the darkest crimes, and the survivors network who has courageously named themselves Cicatrices de Oro “Golden Scar”. A number of them have committed to continue our shared journey throughout Latin America and we look forward to more Kintsugi-Peace Making efforts to heal our world and co-create into the New.
May our work of beauty and justice continue to spark Culture Care journeys ahead. If you are interested in arranging a Kintsugi Experience in your community, please send Carly an email at carly@internationalartsmovement.org
Yours for Kintsugi Generation!
Mako Fujimura
Web Links
- Read about how Fujimura Fellow, Cindy Cortez, is pursuing culture care at Bucknell as a civil engineering student.
- Register for Trinity Talks with Mako on October 23rd (both in-person and livestream options are available).
- An interview with Mako about art, faith, songwriting, Kintsugi, brokenness, new creation, wisdom and laughter.
- “Purpose helps to resolve identity crises, is correlated with greater civic engagement, and aids in coping with mental distress.” Patrick Gilger explores the ways in which having a telos has benefits on all the spheres of life.
- Recent speculations in physics reveal that believers and nonbelievers may have more in common than they think.
- There is no such thing as A.I. art says Walter Kim.