Chink in the Armour

List your five strengths and five weaknesses:

STRENGTH	WEAKNESS
Equanimous	Sceptic
Creative	Reserved
Empathetic	--------
Perseverant Eloquent	-------- --------

There comes a time in everyone’s life when we have to bare our worst and our best traits in a professional or a personal capacity. Alas, my time was here. I was filling out my MBA applications when I came across the much dreaded question; list your strengths and weaknesses. No, I’m not an over-confident individual who believes that she has no weaknesses, I’m just, ahem, shy to divulge my weaknesses. I consulted my colleagues, teachers, friends, (my bf very smartly just listed the strengths with a foot-note: you are perfect babe, no weakness at all. He deserves the best box of chocolates) and lastly myself. I think everyone was a little hesitant to explicitly state my “non-strengths” after my very strong reaction to someone saying don’t you have anger issues? 

I went back home and deliberated on this for considerable amount of time and surprise surprise, instead of what I should be writing, I started off with my next blog!

Everyone has their own devils to wrestle with and it’s not a pleasant thought to state your worst side in front of a panel that is possibly going to decide your future. It got me thinking, are chinks in the armour really so bad? Even Achilles the Great had a weakness in his heel, and we are mortals.

Flipping the pages of history we come across piquant examples of individuals who had one fatal flaw which led to their downfall. For Yudhishthira it was gambling, Elvis left the building for his fix of drugs and Amy Winehouse followed him, Sirius Black (Harry Potter reference for those who haven’t read it, and if I may add: OH MY GOD!) had several flaws and was the most loved character. For that matter all of the people (real or fictional) mentioned were loved and cherished and most importantly, were flawed. Well, if they all went to heaven it would be a fun sight to see Yudhishthira and Elvis Prestly rock-n-rolling, one with a dice and the other with a drink in his hand. Oh-la-la! So is my fatal flaw of sleeping in and inability to wake up early really so bad?

There is a very close, near and dear friend of mine who doesn’t has ‘a’ chink in her armour but her whole armour tends to malfunction, that too quite frequently. At the same time she is the bravest, most creative soul I know. Her weakness just propels her to move forward and she is a businesswoman, a blogger and a pup-mum all rolled into one. My mentor has health issues including BP and some skin allergy and what not but he is the most dynamic person I know. I know of an exceptional teacher who has done his graduation in five years but his students swear by his teaching pedagogy. My father is a taciturn individual who has been successfully running his company for past ten years. My mother, on the other hand, tends to spill the family beans but her volunteers (she and my dad are Art of Living teachers) are her fans! My life is littered with examples of people who have not one but several flaws and yet they are not just shining but fighting and winning at every turn and at every challenge that life offers.

Let's fill ourselves with gold and exude our inner light!

Kintsugi is the art of embracing damage. Japanese are fascinating people, they fill the cracks of a broken object with gold which uplifts the “damaged-goods” status of a mundane object into a coveted possession. This is exactly what our blemishes do to us. We are full of holes so that our inner light can shine through. Instead of shying away from what you are why not embrace your foibles?

Here, I finally filled my box of reality and decided to embrace myself as I truly am.

STRENGTH	WEAKNESS
Equanimous	Sceptic
Creative	Reserved
Empathetic	Over-Thinker
Perseverant Eloquent	Lacking Prioritization Skills Late Riser

There can be no beauty in the world without flaws and foibles.

Having a chink in the armour is what makes everyone so different, so unique. Its the gaping holes of our life which we fill with our talents and achievements and emerge as heroes for someone.

After all, even Batman had a fatal flaw (paranoia and possessiveness), and he still is the hero!

And Joker is the most favourite villain because of his flaws.

We all are Kintsugi human and we should be proud to be one!