The world is sick for a surprisingly modest-sounding reason: we don’t understand some basic human attributes – and yet we are rather convinced that we do. We talk a lot of our characters of course, but generally in terms of someone’s beauty, intelligence and strength and what is new. But when it comes to renewal and taking something to its next stage of being, the overwhelming mindset today is throwing away the old and buying something new.
I have found over the years though; the following attributes will carry you though nearly any challenge that shows up as I save a piece of furniture and give it new life:
CHARITY
This means, above anything else, benevolence and gentleness towards what is failed, disgraced, broken, unappealing and foul. This isn’t about an admiration for strength, it’s about directing sympathy in a most unexpected direction: at what is messed up, lost and in pieces, and at what we might hate, resent and be disgusted with. Anyone can express an interest in perfection, to save something is to devote an active charity towards the mistakes of the past and aberrations. One day, any piece of furniture will require the charity of others to bring it back to life. In one way or another, some of our most prised pieces will need someone kind to look past its evident failings in a tender search for its sometimes deeply hidden merits.
IMAGINATION
Having the imagination is to look beneath the surface – where there may be flaws, imperfections, brittleness or weakness – and to picture the treatment (or mistreatment) that got it to this place. To have imagination is to fill in the better reasons why it is as it is. Imagination knows that the path back to renewal is gentleness.
KINDNESS
There are so many ‘fighters’ for change, so many people determined to make a better world. They denounce their enemies, and feel certain of their cause, but along the way, they have a fateful habit of forgetting to be kind. In their denunciations of their perception of what is worthy of saving, there is precious little mercy, humility, tenderness or grace. It is not enough to be right or just about something, to be kind is to know that anything can have a second (or third or fourth) chance, even the broken, discarded or neglected. It is never simply because something is broken that we have any right to cease showing it the greatest kindness on its path to renewal.
FORGIVENESS
To forgive what has happened to a piece – be it abuse, or neglect is to know that we are, in our own way, as guilty as the next person when we think back over the years on what we have discarded or neglected. Given what we have all done at some point, we have no option but focus less on what has happened and look at the path to recovery. Of course, we have failed and been hasty and less than admirable. But that is no reason not to move on from blame towards a solution.
LOYALTY
This means being loyal to what counts even though many out there no longer agree with our ideas and ideals. The ‘throw away’ mindset may be jeering or criticising, but we continue with steadfastness and an unbudgeable resilient faith knowing that when the job is done there will be renewed life, less waste and satisfaction by doing something worthwhile.
GENEROSITY
It isn’t about loving just one piece, it encompasses the love of everything along the way – removing the stains of the past, fixing he blemishes, cleaning the filth, bringing back the strength with new glue and fresh new fabrics (which of themselves may be recycled).
PATIENCE
We want others to meet our hopes right now and join in with this view and approach. But being faithful to what we do often means giving people the time to mature and develop their points of view; to make mistakes, to try other things, and to give them every chance to see the merits of what we see in reducing waste, renewal and dedication to the way.
If we can believe wholeheartedly in some of the above attributes, it won’t matter what we bring back to life for or what our cause is, we can count as part of what is helping. We should be almost done with the throw-away mindset by now. We should be setting our sights on the challenge of this sort of idea and way. Yet it’s not surprising if we’re still only at the beginning, we’re just starting on the path to being self-expressed humans rather than following some sort of overpowering corporate mantra to be forever tossing out the old and buying the new.
And if you look a little deeper, you may even see how these attributes can carry you through pretty much anything that shows up in life…
