Introduction : Wabi-Sabi - a lesson to be learned?

So I was watching another 'infodocumentary' with a 'let's follow something around with a wobbly camera' Theroux the other day titled, 'The search for Wabi-Sabi'.

Wabi - Sabi, it was shown, is an indefinable way one should exist. What struck me about Wabi -Sabi the most was its acceptance of imperfection, and its emphasis on everything having a natural process. 'How refreshing!', I thought (even though this ideal has been practiced for centuries in Japan).



In a world and climate where everyone feels and sees failure, maybe there is some Wabi - Sabi to be had and incorporated into the building blocks we will need to put in place to get ourselves out of the current mess we are in. In a recent age where everyone seemed to be striving for perfection and valuing their worth by their status and possessions, wouldn't it be a great turn if imperfection became the new post-postmodernist way to go? 'Who has the better/bigger house?' and 'Who has the better car?' gives way to a new way of measuring one's success, to looking at imperfection as quality and worth. Going back to nature as 'God/Allah/any number of other deities' intended.

I'm not sure whether failure would figure in this, but surely if we stopped focussing on perfection in manufactured goods and aesthetics and with everything in general (boobs and butts included), surely so much of what is produced would not be wasted, but admired. This in itself would mean that we would inadvertently be looking after the environment, by throwing less imperfection away. Surely the pressures that we place on ourselves would not be so great. It would be okay to be imperfect. It is what is beautiful about us. The old adage 'nobody's perfect' - could this have been injected into our wonderful old sayings by a Wabi-Sabi follower, way back when?

Maybe this sounds as though I am advocating mediocrity. Or that I am advertising a form of Buddhism. I'm not sure, but whatever I am advocating, it is still stuck in the rut of what is, to me the traditional way one is expected to progress through life. A 20th Century girl at the start of the 21st Century.

So here begins my blog. Any suggestions and ideas welcome. It's not intended to be subversive, patronising or educational. Maybe just a stream of thought. All contributions welcome. Wouldn't it be nice to change something, however small that change might be?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wabi_sabi