THE OLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL
IN JAPAN, WHEN A TEA MUG has an imperfection visible to the eye, it is considered beautiful. The flaw shows that a human touched and molded a piece of clay into its present existence. The flaw is also a tangible reminder that all tea mugs will crack in time, and that all physical existence is transient. This beauty of imperfection is called wabi sabi in Japanese, and it’s derived from Buddhist teachings on the three marks of existence—impermanence, suffering, and the absence of self.
My ninety-five-year-old grandmother reminds me of a wabi sabi tea mug. Nanna has a wrinkled face that beautifully displays
