WINDOWS AND MIRRORS
A Tapestry of Faith Program for Children
SESSION 5: THE BLESSING OF IMPERFECTION
BY BY GABRIELLE FARREL, NATALIE FENIMORE AND JENICE VIEW SUSAN LAWRENCE, MANAGING EDITOR/DEVELOPMENTAL EDITOR AISHA HAUSER, CHILDREN AND FAMILIES PROGRAM DIRECTOR/DEVELOPMENTAL EDITOR
© Copyright 2009 Unitarian Universalist Association.
Published to the Web on 11/8/2014 11:44:19 PM PST.
This program and additional resources are available on the UUA.org web site at
www.uua.org/religiouseducation/curricula/tapestryfaith.
SESSION OVERVIEW
INTRODUCTION
If you look closely at a tree you'll notice its knots and dead branches, just like our bodies. What we learn is that beauty and imperfection go together wonderfully. — Matthew Fox, theologian
Humans are imperfect. We are each uniquely made and live our lives uniquely. Yet we often compare ourselves to others, finding a standard of perfection against which we undoubtedly fail. Lacking a skill or feature we wish we had, we may feel incompetent or inadequate. We forget to value our capacity to learn, grow, and contribute to our communities in our own unique ways.
Unitarian Universalism celebrates the beauty of each individual—imperfections and all. Our first Principle affirms our inherent worth and dignity, and our seventh Principle suggests that we all need one another. This session helps children know they need not be "perfect" to be loved, respected, and appreciated for their own unique gifts.
In this session, a tale from India , "The Water Bearer's Garden," demonstrates that our very imperfections can have corresponding gifts. Children learn about scientific "accidents" that resulted in inventions we enjoy today. The group observes raku pottery and learns the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi—the beauty of imperfection.
In the Window/Mirror panel activity, participants write or draw about their own flaws/blessings using a cracked pot template (Handout 1). Next, Activity 5 invites participants to form their own "cracked pots" with self-hardening modeling clay.
Before distributing modeling clay, explain that participants may make a wabi-sabi pot either with modeling clay or, if the would like to incorporate it onto their Window/Mirror panel, on paper. Distribute modeling clay to those who prefer it. While they are making their "cracked pots," direct them to consider their own imperfections and how these are also gifts to share.
GOALS
This session will:
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Participants will:
SESSION-AT-A-GLANCE
Activity | Minutes |
Opening | 5 |
Activity 1: Nobody's Perfect | 5 |
Activity 2: Story — The Water Bearer's Garden | 10 |
Activity 3: Oops... Wow! | 15 |
Activity 4: Window/Mirror Panel — Perfectly Me | 10 |
Activity 5: Wabi-Sabi, the Beauty of Imperfection | 10 |
Faith in Action: Smile Train Fundraiser | |
Closing | 5 |
Alternate Activity 1: Chocolate Tomato Cake | |
SPIRITUAL PREPARATION
Find a place where you can be quiet with your thoughts. Make yourself comfortable; light a candle to mark the time as different from your other activities. Close your eyes and breathe deeply for about five minutes; perhaps repeat a word or phrase to separate yourself from the activities of the day. After you open your eyes, consider:
Today you will guide the group to think about specific ways in which they are imperfect and ask them to envision these flaws as gifts. Be gentle and accepting, as you would want a leader to gently guide and accept you.
SESSION PLAN
OPENING (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
This ritual welcoming reminds participants of the relational nature of the group experience. Gather the children in a circle around the chalice. Invite them to take a deep breath and release it, and create a deep silence for a moment.
Ask a volunteer to take a reading from the Opening Words Basket and read it aloud. Invite another volunteer to light the chalice. Then lead a greeting:
Now we will take a moment to greet the people next to us. If you are next to someone who is new to our group, offer a welcome, tell them your first and last name, and learn their name.
Lead the group in singing the hymn you have chosen. Singing a congregational favorite helps children grow in their sense of belonging in congregational life. If you choose not to sing, use a bell as a signal to ask the group to still themselves for another moment of silence.
Ask the child who lit the chalice to extinguish it. Ask the child who read the opening words to return the reading to the Opening Words Basket.
Including All Participants
If you have a non-sighted participant who reads braille, obtain the braille version of Singing the Living Tradition from the UUA Bookstore. The bookstore orders from an outside publisher, so order several weeks ahead.
ACTIVITY 1: NOBODY'S PERFECT (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Gather the group and tell them:
We are going to talk today about perfection. Have you ever tried to be perfect? What does it mean to be "perfect"? Let's collect our ideas.
Head the left-hand column on the newsprint: "Perfect... " Ask the group to name things that can be perfect. In the left-hand column, write their ideas as nouns—e.g., (perfect) teeth, a (perfect) day, (perfectly) clean room, or (being perfect at) school, gymnastics, math, or behavior. Leave space between items on your list; use more newsprint if you need to.
Once you have a variety of ideas, invite the group to explain how they identify perfection in the different instances they suggested; use the right-hand column for notes. You might ask, "What are the traits of a perfect math student?" or "What makes a clean-up job 'perfect'?" Your notes should be descriptive phrases—e.g., gets all "A"s (perfect student), never loses a game (perfect athlete), never gets sick (perfectly healthy).
Explore three "perfects" together (or more, if you have time and children are engaged). To conclude, offer that a definition of "perfect" might be "meeting a specific checklist of exact standards." Suggest that while someone might be a "perfect" student, earning all "A"s all the time, or have "perfect" teeth that are straight and gleaming white with no cavities, no person can be perfect in every way all the time.
ACTIVITY 2: STORY — THE WATER BEARER'S GARDEN (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Tell the group that the story, "The Water Bearer's Garden," comes from India . Ring the chime (or other noisemaker), make eye contact with each participant, and read or tell the story.
Sound the chime (or other noisemaker) again at the end. Invite participants to think silently on their own about the story. Say:
Now we are going to practice listening and discussing skills—both are needed to help us understand the story from multiple perspectives. Let's find out what one another thought about the story.
Remind them not to assume others think or feel the same way. Ask everyone to use "I think" or "I feel" statements. Encourage the group to listen to each comment and then share some silence. Use the bell or chime to move between speakers.
Invite participants to retell the story, briefly, in their own words. What children recall and relay tells you what they found most meaningful or memorable.
Then use the following questions to facilitate discussion. Make sure everyone who wants to speak has a chance.
Ask the group to think of other flawed objects. You might suggest ripped jeans, a lamp with no bulb, a torn umbrella, or a scratched mirror. Guide the group to consider how the objects' flaws could be gifts or blessings.
Variation
Invite the children to consider the next question quietly to themselves. If they are comfortable doing so, they may close their eyes. Give a full minute for reflection.
Tell them they might like to use their reflections when they work on their Window/Mirror Panel later in the session.
ACTIVITY 3: OOPS!... WOW! (15 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Gather the group and indicate the items you have placed around the room. Ask the group to identify them (which they likely will do quickly). Say:
You recognize these items because you have probably used most of them. But each one exists only because someone accidentally made it while trying to invent something else.
Form at least three small groups. Tell them they will have two and a half minutes at each of three tables to make up a theory of how the item on the table came to be accidentally invented. You might say:
What was someone trying to do? What went wrong? How did they realize they had actually invented something useful?
Ask them to write their theories briefly on the paper provided with the items. If another group has already written a theory on the paper, the new theory has to be different.
Send each group to a different table. Rotate the groups, allowing each group to visit at least three tables. Watch time carefully; you may wish to give 30-second warnings before each rotation.
Save five minutes to compare what groups have written and share, from Leader Resource 1, the real story about each invention.
ACTIVITY 4: WINDOW/MIRROR PANEL — PERFECTLY ME (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Remind participants about the cracked pot and flaws that might be gifts. Ask them what they consider as the cracks in their lives. What are their features or traits that seem to be flaws, but help make them unique individuals with gifts that can be shared?
Distribute handouts. Invite participants to use colored pencils to add words, pictures, or other decorations that represent their flaws/gifts on their cracked pots. Suggest they put a flaw/gift in each section and then cut them apart to add to their Window/Mirror Panels.
As an alternative, distribute template(s) of the cracked pot. Indicate the fabric, Mylar, or other two-dimensional material onto which participants may trace a cracked pot and then represent some of their imperfections/gifts with appropriate writing/drawing implements. Ask participants to cut out their cracked pots and attach them to their Window/Mirror Panels, either in one piece or as a set of fragments. Let each participant choose where the pieces should go on their panel and offer help as needed.
Give a two-minute warning so everyone has time to affix their cracked pot to their Window/Mirror Panel, clean up materials, and store their panels.
Variation
In the limited time frame, some participants may feel too much pressure to articulate flaws and how they can be blessings. You may want to cut a template along its crack lines to form a puzzle. Give participants the option of tracing the individual fragments onto different colors of Mylar (or different materials altogether), to represent a variety of unique traits that comprise their individual "cracked pot."
ACTIVITY 5: WABI-SABI, THE BEAUTY OF IMPERFECTION (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Pass around or show images of raku pottery, and/or invite children to see and touch raku pots you have brought.
Explain that raku pottery, American-style, is based on a technique started by Korean potters four hundred years ago, and since then it has been traditional in Japan and an integral part of a formal Japanese tea ceremony. In the American style, the irregular, smoky cracks in a pot are made by tossing pots into a fire in a metal container, such as a metal trash can, as the final step in making them.
Say:
The results of the raku process are wholly unpredictable. Thus, the goal is imperfection.
Ask the group for adjectives to describe the pots. Expect a range—for example, beautiful, ugly, weird—and affirm all responses.
Tell the group raku pots are intentionally imperfect. They are examples of a Japanese idea about beauty: wabi-sabi. You might say:
Wabi-sabi sees the singular beauty in an object that may first look flawed, decrepit, or ugly. The beauty comes from how the object shows the natural processes of life.
Help participants generate examples of wabi-sabi in everyday life. You might suggest a favorite pair of ripped jeans, an overgrown wildflower garden, a crumbling old castle, a well loved and well worn baby blanket or stuffed animal, a desk or table marked with use. To conclude, challenge participants to look for wabi-sabi—people, places, or things appreciated for their imperfections—between now and your next meeting.
Distribute self-hardening modeling clay and invite participants to make their own wabi-sabi pots. Indicate pencils with which children can make "cracks." Tell them they may take their pots home as a reminder of the beauty of imperfection.
CLOSING (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Explain that the session is almost over and we will now work together as a community to clean the meeting space. Ask everyone first to clean up their own area and the materials they were using, then clean another area or help someone else. No one should sit in the circle until the meeting space is clean.
Then bring the group back to the circle. Ask them to think about what happened today that was good or what they wish had gone better. If you are running short of time you can ask them for a "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" on the session.
Invite each participant to say, in a word or sentence, why it is important for them to be a part of this faith community. You may go around the circle for responses; allow individuals to speak or pass.
Then ask everyone to hold hands and say together:
Keep alert;
Stand firm in your faith;
Be courageous and strong;
Let all that you do be done in love. — 1 Corinthians 16
If this is the first time the group will say goodbye with "namaste," explain its origin and meaning. Then, lead the group in saying goodbye with the bowing gesture that accompanies the word "namaste."
Distribute copies of the Taking It Home handout you have prepared. Thank and dismiss participants.
FAITH IN ACTION: SMILE TRAIN FUNDRAISER
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
The Smile Train (at www.smiletrain.org/) is an international organization that provides medical treatment to children born with cleft lip and cleft palate. Another organization that works to repair cleft palate is Operation Smile (at www.operationsmile.org/about-us/facts/). Invite the group to plan a bake sale, greeting card sale or other activity to raise money for one of these organizations.
Say, in your own words:
Children who look different from others sometimes get teased. If that happens, a child might think their difference is a terrible flaw. Maybe you have been teased at one time for looking different. Maybe you have teased someone else who looks different.
Tell the children that some children look different because of medical conditions they are born with. Ask if anyone knows or has seen a child like that. Allow some contributions. Expect some laughter, as this topic is likely to make children uncomfortable. Acknowledge that it can be uncomfortable to see or talk about this kind of difference. You may wish to say that some medical conditions simply make people look different, while others affect a person's health or comfort and some medical conditions do both.
Say:
If we know or see someone who has a visible medical condition, we can bet they are aware of it whenever they are with other people. That must be hard. We would want that person to know we see their imperfection and accept it as part of them. We want to show our respect for that person and our connection with them.
One way we can do that is to help pay for surgery for children who have a medical condition that both makes them look different and harms their health, but do not have the money for surgery to repair it.
Explain that cleft lip and cleft palate happen when someone is born before their face fully develops inside their mother's belly. Tell the group that surgery can repair a cleft lip or palate so a child can breathe, speak and eat better, as well as have an appearance that is more like other children's. Take suggestions for a fundraising activity to help Operation Smile or the Smile Train, and make a plan.
LEADER REFLECTION AND PLANNING
Reflect on and discuss with your co-leader(s):
Approach your director of religious education for guidance, as needed.
TAKING IT HOME
If you look closely at a tree you'll notice its knots and dead branches, just like our bodies. What we learn is that beauty and imperfection go together wonderfully. — Matthew Fox, theologian
IN TODAY'S SESSION...
We reflected on Unitarian Universalism's celebration of each individual—imperfections and all. We taught that children need not be "perfect" to be loved, respected, and appreciated for their own unique gifts. A tale from India , "The Water Bearer's Garden," demonstrated that our very flaws can have corresponding gifts. Children learned about scientific "accidents" that resulted in inventions we enjoy today such as the Slinky and floating Ivory soap. The group may have tasted a great chocolate cake made with a surprise ingredient (tomatoes); try this recipe at home.
EXPLORE THE TOPIC TOGETHER. Talk about...
What do you perceive as your flaws? In what way could they be seen or experienced as gifts?
EXTEND THE TOPIC TOGETHER. Try...
A FAMILY ADVENTURE
A chocolate cake made with tomato or mayonnaise. A fruit smoothie including carrot juice or peanut butter. Look for and make a tasty recipe that uses an unlikely ingredient that, on its own, would not appeal to your child. Talk about how the recipe gives the unlikely ingredient a way to share its special gifts.
A FAMILY GAME
Turn your imperfections into blessings. Allow each family member to suggest their own "flaw" for the others to help them re-frame as a gift. For example, someone who is often told they are "annoying" may also be very funny or be able to cheer someone up when doing the very same behaviors. Someone who gives family members too many instructions—"bossy"—may also be caring, knowledgeable, or responsible. Someone whose messy room is legendary is likely also to be easygoing or creative.
FAMILY DISCOVERY
Parents who wonder if they expect too much "perfection" from their children may like to read The Blessing of a Skinned Knee by Wendy Mogel (New York: Penguin, 2001). Mogel is a clinical psychologist who found, in Jewish tradition, meaningful guidance for contemporary parenting. In a 2006 article about her, the New York Times Magazine says:
There is a Hasidic saying that Mogel quotes, 'If your child has a talent to be a baker, don't ask him to be a doctor.' By definition, most children cannot be at the top of the class; value their talents in whatever realm you find them. 'When we ignore a child's intrinsic strengths in an effort to push [them] toward our notion of extraordinary achievement, we are undermining God's plan,' Mogel writes.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 1: CHOCOLATE TOMATO CAKE
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Allow participants to taste a cake made with an unlikely ingredient. See if anyone can taste the unlikely ingredient. Ask children to think of other foods that are made with an ingredient that, by itself, would not seem appealing. Point out that the tasty snack gives the unlikely ingredient—like the cracked pot—a way to share its special gifts.
Including All Participants
Check with your director of religious education, parents and participants for food allergies. If any participant is allergic to any ingredient in a recipe, adapt the recipe or skip this activity.
WINDOWS AND MIRRORS: SESSION 5:
STORY: THE WATER BEARER'S GARDEN
From uu & me! Collected Stories, edited by Betsy Hill Williams (Boston: Skinner House, 2003). Used with permission.
A water bearer in India had two large pots, each hung on one end of a pole that he carried across his neck. One of the pots had a crack in it. At the end of the long walk from the stream on the master's house, the cracked pot arrived only half full, while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water. For two years this went on daily, with the bearer delivering only one and a half pots full of water to his master's house.
Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments, perfect to the end for which it was made. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it was able to accomplish only half of what it had been made to do. After two years of what it perceived to be bitter failure, it spoke to the water bearer one day by the stream. "I am ashamed of myself, and I want to apologize to you."
"Why?" asked the bearer, "What are you ashamed of?"
"I have been able, for these past two years, to deliver only half my load because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your master's house.
Because of my flaws, you have to do all this work, and you don't get full value from our efforts," the pot said.
The water bearer felt sorry for the cracked pot, and in his compassion he said, "As we return to the master's house I want you to notice the beautiful flowers along the path."
Indeed, as they went up the hill, the old cracked pot took notice of the sun warming the beautiful wild flowers on the side of the path, and this cheered it some. But at the end of the trail, it still felt sad because it had leaked out half its load, and so again the pot apologized to the bearer for its failure.
The bearer said to the pot, "Did you notice that there were flowers only on your side of the path, but not on the other pot's side? That's because I have always known about your flaw, and I took advantage of it. I planted flower seeds on our side of the path, and every day while we walk back from the stream, you've watered them. For two years I have been able to pick beautiful flowers to decorate my master's table. Without you being just the way you are, he would not have this beauty to grace his house.
"We all have our own unique flaws. We are all cracked pots. In God's great web of life, nothing goes to waste. Don't be afraid of your flaws. Acknowledge them, and you too can be the cause of beauty. Know that in our weakness we find our strength.
WINDOWS AND MIRRORS: SESSION 5:
HANDOUT 1: CRACKED POT TEMPLATE
WINDOWS AND MIRRORS: SESSION 5:
LEADER RESOURCE 1: OOPS!... WOW! EXPLANATIONS
Share these true stories of how mistakes led people to invent these useful, common items.
Silly Putty
From the Computer Patent Annuities (at www.cpaglobal.com/ip-review-online/widgets/notes_quotes/more/1713/who_invented_silly_putty)website:
The invention of Silly Putty was a side effect of America 's attempts to cope with the rubber shortage brought about the Japanese capture of producer-nations during World War Two. In 1943, James Wright, a Scottish engineer, was working at General Electric's laboratory in New Haven, Connecticut , to find a viable method of producing synthetic rubber. One day he mixed some silicon oil and boric acid in a test tube. When he removed the gooey substance that formed inside, Wright threw a lump to the floor and found that it bounced back up again. After circulating among chemists for a few years, Silly Putty was launched as a children's novelty item in 1949. Since then, over 200 million plastic eggs-full of the stuff have been sold worldwide.
From the InventorSpot (at inventorspot.com/articles/three_famous_things_invented_accident_12896)website:
The invention of Silly Putty started out scientifically. During World War II, the United States government was in dire need of a substitute for rubber to use on such things as boots and airplane tires. They asked their engineers to experiment with silicone to find this synthetic rubber. In 1944, a General Electric engineer named James Wright added boric acid to silicone oil and ended up inventing what became Silly Putty. However, before it was Silly Putty, it was nothing. Though it was elastic and bounced, it wasn't sufficient as a rubber substitute and was put aside. It wasn't until 1949 that Silly Putty realized its true potential. It had attracted the attention of a toy store owner named Ruth Fallgatter. She teamed up with a marketing consultant named Peter Hodgson to find a creative use for the putty. It was first marketed to adults and then became a toy for children. The rest is history. Despite the rationing of silicone brought on by the Korean War, Silly Putty persevered and is now one of the world's most popular toys.
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adapted from the website, What's Cooking America (at whatscookingamerica.net/History/CookieHistory.htm), copyright Linda Stradley.
The first chocolate chip cookies were invented in 1937 by Ruth Graves Wakefield (1905—1977), of Whitman, Massachusetts, who ran the Toll House Restaurant. The Toll House Restaurant site was once a real toll house built in 1709, where stagecoach passengers ate a meal while horses were changed and a toll was taken for use of the highway between Boston and New Bedford , a prosperous whaling town.
One of Ruth's favorite recipes was an old recipe for "Butter Drop Do" cookies that dated back to colonial times. The recipe called for the use of baker's chocolate. One day Ruth found herself without the needed ingredient. Having a bar of semisweet chocolate on hand, she chopped it into pieces and stirred the chunks of chocolate into the dough. She assumed the chocolate would melt and spread throughout each cookie. Instead the chocolate bits held their shape and created a sensation. She called her new creation the Toll House Crunch Cookies. The Toll House Crunch Cookies became very popular with guests at the inn, and soon her recipe was published in a Boston newspaper, as well as other papers in the New England area. This cookie became known nationally when Betty Crocker used it in her radio series, "Famous Foods from Famous Eating Places."
Ruth approached the Nestlé Company. They agreed Nestlé would print what would become the Toll House Cookie recipe on the wrapper of the Semi-Sweet Chocolate Bar. The company developed a scored semisweet chocolate bar with a small cutting implement so making the chocolate chunks would be easier. According to the story, part of this agreement included supplying Ruth with all of the chocolate she could use to make her delicious cookies for the rest of her life. Then, in 1939, Nestlé began offering Nestlé Toll House Real Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels.
Ruth sold all legal rights to the use of the Toll House trademark to Nestlé. On August 25, 1983, the Nestlé Company lost its exclusive right to the trademark in federal court. Toll house is now a descriptive term for a cookie.
Velcro
From WikiAnswers (at wiki.answers.com/Q/Who_invented_Velcro)and enotes.com (at www.enotes.com/science-fact-finder/general-science-technology/who-invented-velcro).
George de Mestral, a Swiss amateur mountaineer and inventor (1908—1990), decided to take his dog for a nature hike one lovely summer day in 1948. They both returned covered with burrs. De Mestral inspected one of the burrs under his microscope and was inspired to use the same mechanism for a fastener. His idea met with resistance and even laughter, but the inventor "stuck" by his invention. Together with a weaver from a textile plant in France , de Mestral perfected his hook and loop fastener. By trial and error, he realized that nylon, when processed under infrared light, formed tough hooks for the burr side of the fastener. This finished the design, patented in 1955. The inventor formed Velcro Industries to manufacture his invention. Not long afterward, De Mestral was selling over sixty million yards of Velcro per year. Today it is a multi-million dollar industry.
The name, "velcro," combines two French words, velours ("velvet") and crochet ("small hook"). A velcro fastener comprises two strips made of nylon; one strip is dense with thousands of tiny hooks and the other has tiny loops for the hooks to catch.
Sticky Notes/Post-its
From About.com (at inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blpostit.htm).
Post-it notes may have been a God-send... literally. In the early 1970s, Art Fry was in search of a bookmark for his church hymnal that would neither fall out nor damage the hymnal. Fry noticed that a colleague at 3M, Dr. Spencer Silver, had developed an adhesive that was strong enough to stick to surfaces, but left no residue after removal and could be repositioned. Fry took some of Dr. Silver's adhesive and applied it along the edge of a piece of paper. His church hymnal problem was solved!
Fry soon realized that his "bookmark" had other potential functions when he used it to leave a note on a work file, and co-workers kept dropping by, seeking "bookmarks" for their offices. This "bookmark" was a new way to communicate and to organize. 3M Corporation crafted the name Post-it note for Fry's bookmarks and began production in the late '70s for commercial use.
In 1977, test-markets failed to show consumer interest. However, in 1979 3M implemented a massive consumer sampling strategy, and the Post-it note took off. Today, we see Post-it notes peppered across files, computers, desks, and doors in offices and homes throughout the country. From a church hymnal bookmark to an office and home essential, the Post-it note has colored the way we work.
A Slinky
From enotes.com (at www.enotes.com/science-fact-finder/general-science-technology/who-invented-slinky).
The Slinky was invented by Philadelphia engineer Richard T. James in the mid-1940s. The Slinky is a toy made of a steel or plastic coil that tumbles smoothly down a flight of stairs.
It wasn't James's intention to create a toy. The Slinky was actually the result of a failed attempt to produce an anti-vibration device for ship instruments—something that would absorb the shock of waves. When James accidentally knocked one of his steel spirals off a shelf, he saw it literally crawl, coil by coil, to a lower shelf, onto a stack of books, down to the tabletop, and finally come to rest, upright, on the floor.
James' wife, Betty, saw its potential as a toy and named it "slinky." Betty and Richard James founded James Industries in 1948 to market the toy Slinky.
A Floating Bar of Ivory Soap
From About.com: Inventors (at inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blsoap.htm).
A soap maker at the Procter and Gamble company had no idea a new innovation was about to surface when he went to lunch one day in 1879. He forgot to turn off the soap mixer, and more than the usual amount of air was whipped into the batch of pure white soap that the company sold under the name The White Soap. Fearing he would get in trouble, the soap maker kept the mistake a secret and packaged and shipped the air-filled soap to customers around the country. Soon customers were asking for more "soap that floats." When company officials found out what happened, they turned it into one of the company's most successful products, Ivory Soap.
WINDOWS AND MIRRORS: SESSION 5:
LEADER RESOURCE 2: RAKU POT
WINDOWS AND MIRRORS: SESSION 5:
LEADER RESOURCE 3: RAKU PEARS
From the website, Art 'n Soul, copyright Sharon Bartmann. Used with permission.
FIND OUT MORE
Mistakes That Worked
More accidental discoveries can be found in the book Mistakes That Worked by Charlotte Foltz Jones (New York: Doubleday, 1991).
Resiliency, Diversity, and Personal "Flaws"
Resiliency is a quality that helps children who are teased about their differences understand that the teasing is the other person's problem. Children who are less resilient tend to interpret teasing as the naming of a personal, uncorrectable flaw.
By viewing their minority status as a strength, families that do not fit traditional structures or that fall outside the ethnic or economic mainstream have extraordinary potential to raise resilient children, according to a chapter, "Human Diversity," by Barbara Okun, in Family Therapy Review edited by Robert H. Coombs ( New York : Routledge, 2004).
Wabi-Sabi and Cracked Pots
A Japanese philosophical/aesthetic term often associated with raku pottery, wabi-sabi describes "the beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, incomplete, humble, modest, and unconventional." According to the New Tribal Visions (at www.newtribalvisions.com/wabi-sabi.html) website:
Wabi-sabi is at the core of all Japanese ideals of beauty; the quintessential aesthetic of a Zen culture. Objects wabi-sabi are simple, earthy, and unpretentious.
On his site, Ceramics with Wabi (at dmh.net/raku98/reku-def.htm), Douglas Hooten gives accessible definitions of "wabi" and "sabi" and a brief history of raku.
In a blog article, "The Joy of Wabi-Sabi ," (at anmaru.wordpress.com/2008/01/30/the-joy-of-wabi-sabi/) Anmaru writes:
... it's completely unlike Western ideals such as the golden ratio (at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_ratio) that require mathematical exactness. Wabi-sabi is appreciated with another part of the brain.
Some clothing manufacturers feel the need to label garments that are hand-knitted or made of some kinds of silk with little tags pointing out that oddities or apparent imperfections are characteristics of the fabric or the process, not flaws. This is a good example of wabi-sabi (the characteristics, not the rather condescending tags... ). Of course, many people appreciate that hand-made items have a charm and value no machine-made perfection can match.
Korean potters, under Japanese rule, began making raku ceramics in the 17th century. Ceramicist Paul Soldner writes in "American-style Raku " (at www.paulsoldner.com/writings/American_Raku.html) about how contemporary, Western-style raku pottery differs from traditional Japanese Raku, which is made by the Raku family, and is an integral part of Japanese tea ceremony.