#wabi-sabi
Kintsugi objects
Kintsugi (golden joinery) or Kintsukuroi (golden repair) is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum. As a philosophy it treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise.
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The world of dew
is the world of dew.
And yet, and yet —
露の世は露の世ながらさりながら
Kobayashi Issa
Continued: https://unityinplurality.blogspot.com/2020/04/world-of-dew.html
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Spring
***
outside my window snow
is melting and little birds are
singing a welcome song
to spring
***
icy spring raindrops
falling from tender leaves
kissing flowers
***
cold day,
spring is coming
in a slow pace
***
a tiny leaf
is kissing a butterfly,
peaceful day
***
raven flying
over the trees in bloom,
sorrow and joy
***
spring meadow,
grass in the morning dew
meeting a new day
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“What breaks, can be mended; might be even more beautiful-interesting because of that scar. Maybe you weren’t alive until you were broken apart,” and more thoughts about the new Denim Queen quilt at Gift Fox Quilts blog.
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“Think how you love me,’ she whispered. ‘I don’t ask you to love me always like this, but I ask you to remember.’
You’ll always be like this to me.’
Oh no; but promise me you’ll remember.’ Her tears were falling. 'I’ll be different, but somewhere lost inside me there’ll always be the person I am tonight.”
―F. Scott Fitzgerald,Magnetism
Model: Anastasia
November 2015
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I am not the finished poem you would have me be. I talk too much and not at all. You would not recognize me if you passed me on the street. I am distorted, detached and disorganized and after years of trying to change, I’ve found that it suits me fine.
Model: Anastasia
November 2015
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The Philosophy of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
Do you get SAD? No: not sad; SAD.
Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a form of depression which tracks seasonal patterns. As summer ominously draws to a close, those who are susceptible to SAD have to prepare themselves for the long struggle ahead through winter.
Beneath the clinical manifestations of SAD there may be something more existential in action, something which expresses a disconnection from the now-decaying world.
To quote Freud on his friend Rilke:
‘Not long ago I went on a summer walk through a smiling countryside in the company of a taciturn friend and of a young but already famous poet. The poet admired the beauty of the scene around us but felt no joy in it. He was disturbed by the thought that all this beauty was fated to extinction, that it would vanish when winter came, like all human beauty and all the beauty and splendour that men have created or may create. All that he would otherwise have loved and admired seemed to him to be shorn of its worth by the transience which was its doom.
Winter is coming.
Read more about SAD here.
(Photo credit: Karol Wiśniewski.)
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Antelope Horn Brush, China - Bohème-Living
Slow and steady.
Tobirama releases a small sigh, a huff of breath he wasn’t even aware of holding back, when Madara steps towards him. It’s not one for the bath but the fact that he even moved forward at all seems to be a huge accomplishment.
“It’s fine,” Tobirama attempts again, trying to figure a way around this watery death trap. He cannot get in himself, that’s for sure (plus, he refuses to) so his only viable options are reassurance and bribery. Either of which he’s not too good at.
He takes another deep breath, closing his eyes for a second before offering his hand to Madara. When Tobirama opens his eyes, the determination is clear in his eyes. Surely getting one freaked out tengu into the bath will be easier than attempting to harness a drunk Hashirama.
…right?
“It won’t hurt you but you need to be cleaned up,” he begins carefully, attempting to choose his words wisely, “it will be beneficial for your wounds — you have to get them cleaned. And the rest of you too.”
That is the reassurance part. Then comes the bribery.
He doesn’t have much to offer.
“I’ll get you some food after. And maybe one of those fruit things Hashirama brought earlier? You seemed to like those. It was good, wasn’t it? All you have to do is sit down in the tub and let me help you get all this filth off of you..” he pauses or a moment, looking over Madara’s face for signs of discomfort.
“Does that sound alright?”
Tobirama makes sure that Madara is following him and that he doesn’t accidentally trip and fall or otherwise manage to harm himself on the way to the bathroom. He is especially concerned about the injuries which, while they are likely already healing thanks to Hashirama’s chakra, are still not quite out of the clear and could easily still be causing Madara pain o trouble.
(He still doesn’t understand why he cares about Madara and his injuries. Maybe it’s Hashirama and his dream. Maybe it is Madara’s current harmlessness and downright exudes child-like innocence — at least now in his down state.
And Tobirama hates every single moment of that.)
At Madara’s whine, Tobirama turns towards Madara with his brows raised in question. He doesn’t notice the underlying feeling of distress until it may be too late — until Madara freezes in panic with wide eyes staring at the bathtub that Tobirama had filled for him.
There is no response for Tobirama for a while as he observes Madara’s expression and body language to catalogue another of Madara’s quirks. He still tries, though, beckoning Madara closer.
“You need a bath. Come on. It’s shallow enough. It won’t hurt you.”
He just needs Madara to come closer to see that the water is only about halfway up and not nearly enough for him to drown in or get otherwise injured in. And he needs Madara to trust him to get through with his.
(And certainly, he’s not getting in with Madara.)
“I’m here. I will help you,” he says because there is no other way of getting Madara in other than by reassurance. Force is not the way to go and likely neither is bribery since he wants Madara to understand that such actions are not normally harmful nor scary.
And trust is necessary for their bonding.
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Tobirama shakes his head in response, handing the previously ogled bottle to Madara before vaguely attempting to mimic washing himself with his hands. He does that by rubbing his hands together and then pretends to wash his face and arms.
“No. Wash yourself, you are still filthy.”
There is no other way of conveying this across and Tobirama downright refuses to help Madara with more washing than necessary. Surely the tengu does know how to do that, right?
And even if not, he must learn how to do these things himself — Tobirama will not aid him in that, not now, not ever. If he wants Madara to learn anything at all, it has to be without any interjections other than outside guidance from ‘afar’.
Unfortunately, for Madara that might mean more suffering than until now, especially because now he has to actually do things he should have known how to do a long time ago. And that is not something that Tobirama is any good with, especially since he is not equipped to handle the teaching of that degree. Social interactions are not his forté.
“I’ll leave you alone to do that, just call for me when you are done with that. I’ll help with the rinsing.”
And with that, Tobirama leaves, waving his hand in the direction of both Madara and the clone. It’s unclear whether it is a gesture of dismissal for Madara or a beckoning for his clone but the clone still steps from around the tub and follows Tobirama out of the bathroom, leaving Madara alone.
Once Tobirama is pointed out the core of the problem, he carefully combs through the mess of strands to find what is causing the new spurt of blood to trickle into the water. The fact that it is just a dislodged feather temporarily allows him to feel relieved. As brutal as the damage seems, it is not as serious as he thought it would be. The feather will eventually grow back and judging by Madara’s reaction, the tengu hardly even knows about it aside from some form of discomfort.
“I see,” Tobirama lets Madara know verbally that he has acknowledged his words, carefully pulling the feather out completely. It will be much better for Madara to be rid of it and additionally, it will prevent the area from getting inflamed. It comes at the cost of some additional pain but he hopes that Madara will not react too violently to it.
After all, there is still a lot left to do.
As Tobirama’s access to appropriate ‘hair’-care supplies is limited, he uses what he can, including Hashirama’s odd herbal concoctions that are supposed to help the caked dirt and tangling (and hopefully not cause further irritation where the suds may accidentally go over a wound or two).
When it comes to additional tools, though, Tobirama has to scrutinise whatever supplies Hashirama had dragged in with him. None look too appealing, oddly crooked and with teeth of varying distances, undoubtedly Hashirama-made as well, judging by the attempt at polishing of his Mokuton wood. The distant hum of chakra underneath the combs’ surfaces alone is telling, but Tobirama can only feel it once he lays his hands on the combs properly.
The rest of the work passes relatively slowly and in silence. Both Tobiramas work in tandem, switching between washing, pouring liquid, and combing through Madara’s hair and wings.
The water has to be changed once or twice, less and less filthy each time until Madara’s plumage is clean enough to not stain the water anymore, and his wounds have temporarily closed and have started to scab over.
“You can wash yourself, right?” Tobirama, the clone, huffs from the side in an almost irritated manner, straightening his back, while the real Tobirama seems to be taking a minute off. He too straightens his back, wincing quietly at the leftover strain and dull ache of being bet over the tub for too long. Carefully, he lifts his arm and rotates his shoulder until it cracks and slots itself back into its socket.
He’ll definitely demand a compensation after.
This is where the fun starts.
Both of the Tobiramas move to take their place on either of Madara’s sides, simply watching as the water allows just about everything to come out of Madara’s hair. Tobirama surely does look a bit baffled at the sheer amount of random things, weaponry included, especially since he would have thought that Hashirama had managed to remove it all.
How is Madara even able to hold so many things in his hair and wings? That’s what Tobirama would like to know because it complicates his job even further.
“How indeed,” his clone supplies before bending down a bit to begin the long and tedious work of simply removing every piece of alien material from Madara’s hair and wings, no matter is organic or not. He needs to be rid of these things before they can even proceed to clean him up.
Tobirama himself soon joins, carding his hands through Madara’s other wing to shake out (or alternatively pull out by force) any stray weapons or twigs, or any other object he might find.
The water slowly turns deep muddy brown and then almost black and Tobirama has to eventually let the water out and replace it with clean water in order to get somewhere with the session. Especially since the longer Madara sits in filthy water, the filthier he will get as well.
(Simultaneously he suspects that this will not be the last time he is forced to change the water.)
While he is busy doing that and while his clone fishes out all the material filth and debris from the bathtub, a quick look over Madara’s side allows him to notice the trail of blood coming from somewhere around Madara’s shoulder.
“….are you hurt anywhere? Do you..feel any pain?”
Unbeknownst to Madara, Tobirama is quickly losing patience the more Madara struggles and splashes just about everything in the vicinity of the tub. He even has to bite his tongue not to hiss something at the cursed tengu in the tub, gripping Madara’s forearms tightly until the Uchiha calms down enough to be let go safely.
It takes a while but Madara finally manages to settle down at least for a while. The sigh of relief that Tobirama lets out is far to blissful, more than it should be, but he finally manages to pull back from the tub, rolling his sleeves up. He’s already drenched in water, so there is no point in doing anything about it, but the entirety of the bathroom is splattered with puddles of water.
Tobirama, therefore, does what he can do best, stretching out his arms to use a jutsu and manipulate the water back into the tub. He does so with a hard expression — a set jaw and brows furrowed in concentration.
“The more water you splash around, the more will I have to put back in and the longer you will have to sit in there,” he warns Madara, dropping his arms soon enough. His gaze wanders back to the drenched tengu, defeat clear on his face.
In the background, his clone steps into the room again, ready to assist in the tough fight that is the bathing of Madara.
“Ready?” Tobirama asks no one in particular. It could be Madara. Or even himself. At this point, he’s not sure who should be more ready to undertake this challenge but he knows that the next time there will be bath time, Hashirama will be on cleaning duty. Without anyjutsu.
Things seem okay for a while.
Tobirama allows Madara to inspect his hand to show him that yes, indeed, the water has not harmed him at all and is completely safe to step into. Unfortunately, he has not thought it out so well, it seems — Tobirama can only thank his quick reflexes that the two of them do not end up toppling into the bath fully.
He manages to catch Madara shortly before that, only earning a couple of scratches from Madara’s talons and some wet patches where the water managed to spill out during their strange manoeuvre.
“Shit. Be careful,” Tobirama hisses through his teeth, looking down at the damage done. Madara is almost in the tub. Almost. It could be easier to get him in like this since he is halfway there — but further persuasion and reassurance is needed. And Tobirama loathes it.
“Okay, uh, listen. You are almost there, so just bear with it a little longer, okay? The sooner we get to this, the sooner it is going to be over and you can get out of the water and get food..that’s good, right? That’s what you want?”
He gestures at the water again, not even waiting for Madara’s answer before lowering him just slightly so his legs are back in the water. It barely reaches his knees and is a bit on the warmer side, but Tobirama makes sure that Madara isn’t too uncomfortable or panicky.
“It will not hurt you in any way. It is just a bit of water, see?”
When Madara reaffirms that he trusts Tobirama at least the minimal amount necessary for him to actually reach out and step towards one of his greatest fears, the man in question gives him a firm nod in approval.
It’s baby steps, but it works and for now, that is all that Tobirama needs — he’s especially glad that Madara is susceptible to food-based bribery. And for a reason, too.
“Okay, you are doing fine,” he starts again, “the water will not hurt you. It is not here to do so — quite the contrary — it will help you in more ways than one. Now come on in. One step at a time,” he continues carefully, pulling Madara towards the basin. It takes him a good while of shuffling around to get on the other side of the tub while simultaneously keeping Madara by the edge.
Tobirama slowly moves to sit on the edge of the tub, patiently waiting for Madara to follow his lead and come in. He is aware of the fact that Madara is still wearing a few articles of his clothes alongside the little detail that they will have to come off in order for Madara to wash up properly.
To show Madara that the water is shallow and safe, he dips his other hand into it until the water reaches just about the height of his elbow, a gesture which he hopes that Madara will understand and doubt him no more. Luckily, the water still pleasantly warm.
“See? No harm. It’s okay to come in.”
He’s not sure to what degree that even helps but seeing as Madara seems to somehow trust his judgement, Tobirama has some faith in the tengu’s ability to cast aside his fears in order to get washed up especially since Tobirama is there with him to help him and protect him.
