Tea Cup With A Fired-in Crack Analogy?

[Sandstone]

Does anyone know where this analogy. which my therapist is fond of, comes from? I know she has said it
is in someone's writings.

I want to read it in it's original, as I'm clearly not hearing what she means. She speaks about a beautiful bone china cup, finely decorated, which when held up to the light reveals a fine crack under the glaze in the body. I hear that as being a reference to me being irrevocably faulty and being something that should have been weeded out in Quality Control.

I don't want to be faulty to my core. I don't want to be someone who can never be restored.

I'd be happier if she had an image of me as a piece of sturdy ancient earthenware, cracked but worth restoring to functionality. At the moment I feel like a pile of broken bits that grate painfully on each other.

 

[piratelady]

I have never heard that saying. I would ask her what she means by it. Perhaps she means that despite the crack the tea cup is still useful? I don't really know. That's one reason I'm not fond of sayings, it's hard to know what the person is trying to say.

 

[safenow]

I like the one where we are like a fine tapestry. Many different colors are represented. The weaver is a perfectionist, yet always allows at least one flaw to show that nothing is perfect.

Think how snobby you would have been if you were perfect, stenni. Now you wouldn't want that, would you? Frankly, I think you are fine, just as you are.

 

['91 Girl]

Maybe it has to do with the fact that it is broken, but beautiful regardless. The broken part is so deep and hidden that it is still a very beautiful cup and we would never know unless we examined it carefully in the right light. It's still completely useful, though. And it's not going anywhere, because PTSD doesn't ever get cured, so the break will always be there.

Honestly, that's about the best I can come up with. It doesn't sound like a very good analogy. Have you tried asking your T what the analogy means?

 

[Hashi]

With tea ceremony cups in Japan, variations are seen to represent the individual, unique beauty of each cup. Cracks can be caused during firing because the clay that's considered to produce the most beautiful cups is very sensitive. Cracks aren't seen as flaws but as features. They add to the specialness of that one cup, which is like no other.

I have no idea if this is her meaning. I haven't heard it applied to Western teacups. I do think you need to ask your therapist what she means and/or the source of the saying.

If she's thinking along the lines of some sort of adversity that the cup has survived, assimilated and is still beautiful, I wanted to offer the above as an additional way of looking at it.

 

[WillyKat]

I've heard of a Chinese proverb about the cracked pot, which goes something like this:

A servant carries water every day from the well to the top of the hill. But his pot is cracked and water leaks out all the way up and is never full when he reaches the top. He worries that his master will be upset. Finally, his master asks him why he is so concerned. The servant explains that his pot is cracked and that he isn't bringing his share of water to the temple.

The master told him not to worry and pointed at all the beautiful flowers growing along the path up the hill from the well. The master said that if it was not for the cracked pot, the flowers would have no water and would not grow.

I found a much better version of this on the web: Link Removed