Children
show scars like medals. Lovers use them as secrets to reveal. –Leonard
Cohen
Scars, they say, never completely disappear. Perhaps
your scar is from surgery, or maybe your brother threw a rock at your head. I tripped
over a laundry basket and smashed my face into the coffee table the day we were
destined for Disneyland. Sometimes scars represent trauma: a devastating
accident, a reminder of a mistake.
We also have internal, metaphorical scars. Scars no
one sees. But we know they are there.
Our skin is our largest organ. Scarring happens
after an injury – it’s a natural process, a part of healing. If the injury
extends to the dermis, the organ simply cannot replace the tissue in the same
way. Yet we often try to cover them up, spend thousands on laser treatments, drop
20 or 30 bucks on over-the-counter ointment.
Your
body is a magnificent vessel, capable of repairing injury. You damage it, it
gets fixed. Just think about that a minute.
Kintsugi is the ancient Japanese art of repair. Broken
pottery repaired with seams of gold – desirable scarring, representing the beauty
of the uniquely broken. Kintsugi celebrates the scars, highlights the breaks
that create something new.
Our internal scars cannot be remedied with laser
treatment or pricey ointments. Yet they make us who we are. We break to scar;
scar to repair: but that repair leaves us changed. And there is beauty in that
damage, in the repair process, in the seams. Our outer scars identify us as
human, ever-changing, ever-repairing humans. Both our outer scars and our inner
scars are our histories.
Brian O'Neill
ReplyDeleteENGL 204
Prof. B. Ballenger
September 30, 2014
Hunger
Merriman-Webster states that Hunger (v) is a strong desire or craving for. As I sit here writing this, my idea of hunger grows, rapidly. I haven’t had that feeling in hours and now it’s beckoning my call. What is the cause of this feeling that is taking over my thoughts, making me distracted from the task at hand. It’s my desire to be back on the river, riding the rapids with intense concentration and joy. This is accompanied by my hunger to be with my friends, who possess the same passion about running the rivers with a huge wave trains and big drops, dodging holes and strainers. My hunger grows for the Dutch oven cookout that concludes our day on the river. Hunger is powerful and sometimes distracting, in some ways overpowering as I can see my girlfriend who will later by looking at me through the campfire with hungry eyes.
We all are familiar with hunger in some form or another. One thing is for certain, we will always be hungry for more. As I board the airplane for my solo journey back to the East Coast, I hunger for one my kiss from my girlfriend. When I am awakened in the middle of the night from my stomach rumbling, I hunger for another piece of pumpkin pie. After I get tossed from my raft while going through Lochsa Falls, I hunger for the chance to do it again, successfully that is.
Adventure is around the bend and for that, I will always be hungry.