Hello and welcome to Restoring the Soul, a podcast dedicated to helping you close the gap between what you believe and what you actually experience. I'm your producer Brian Beatty. Thanks for listening. On this edition of Restoring the Soul, Michael welcomes Mako and Heijin Shim Fujimora. Today they'll discuss a number of topics ranging from trauma, 9-11, Kintsugi, the COVID-19 pandemic, and human trafficking. Mako is a leading contemporary artist whose process-driven, refractive, slow art has been described by David Brooks of the New York Times as a small rebellion against the quickening of time. He's also an arts advocate, writer, and speaker who's recognized worldwide as a cultural influencer. Married to Mako, Heijin is an international attorney and CEO of Embers International, whose mission is to protect, restore, and empower victims of injustice with a goal to end intergenerational exploitation and prevent human trafficking. She also serves as the president of Kinsugi Academy. Her life mission is to bring light into the darkness and help others to be remade in order for them to recover. We're going to pick up the discussion with Heijin talking about how her life journey reflects Kinsuki.
SPEAKER_01My life journey has been one that reflects what we call Kinsuki, and then we can introduce Kinsuki a little bit more later. But looking back whenever there was a major season ahead of me, that's when I experienced a certain kind of trauma from which God by his grace really restored me through making me into someone that is a better version of myself. So through trauma, you know, I gained this deep understanding of compassion and a deeper understanding of justice and self-discovery. And through that journey, you know, I have become a lawyer and justice advocate. And through that journey, I realized that whenever there is a new season, I needed to become a different, like a big I need to be made once again. And through that journey, I was able to see the people's lives that are also broken, and also see a hope and possibility of being made into new. So, you know, I started my um my legal career about 17 years ago, and um I'm a litigator and business law practitioner, have my own law firm, and um even through that um training, I saw um a lot of brokenness in the legal industry. So from then on, you know, I was um able to start my own law firm that has created a very redeemed law firm culture, very different kind of um legal team that actually get to love their work.
Michael John CusickWow. There there are people going, wow, lawyers love their work and a different culture.
SPEAKER_01Yes, and and you know, and I'm one of them, I love my work. And um that's because we see our legal career as something that uh is of making, that we have to be extremely creative. We have to be extremely compassionate and extremely um uh have a depth of understanding of you know uh the what's going on with our clients and the world and so forth. So um through that, uh, you know, I got to really serve a lot of my clients, but also um by being an entrepreneur, I got to have my um own schedule, and which allowed me to start in this um organization called Embers International. And Embers International is an um anti-trafficking, anti-slavery organization that protects, restores, and empowers people who are victims of injustice. And right now we focus on um the survivors of trafficking in India and also children who are at risk of trafficking in the slums in the red light district, um, and also their mothers who are still um oppressed from generational exploitation. And for them, um what we had to imagine is that there are, although um you know suffering from just incredible violence right now, that there is um a hope for this Kinsuki beauty, that their scars are going to be filled with gold and blood of Christ and the sweats of the God's people showing up um at their door and um and and and them make becoming um someone who's more beautiful and valuable. Uh, when the scars are not hidden but exaggerated, but those scars will become beautiful. So that's the story of restoration through this Kinsuki journey, which I um you know understood before even I met Mako. And after we we met, um I mean that idea um and the work of Kinsuki for restoration became even more clearer. But Embers International uses the metaphor Kinsuki because um we have to be able to see um the victims, uh not as just victims, but as people who are on their journey of restoration.
Michael John CusickAnd I'll once again allow you guys to navigate who shares, but I remember Mako hearing a talk from you that with the Kinsugi art form, which I hope you unpack, that the broken pottery was not seen as broken, but as something that was in and of itself beautiful. So that metaphor for Embers International is really profound because yes, there's damage done through trauma, but there's something fundamental in the soul that remains intact, the image of God. Um so that's so powerful.
SPEAKER_02It is. Uh kinsugi is uh Japanese term uh kin is gold and tsugi means to mend. And uh it it flows out of this venerable uh tradition of tea, uh tea ceremony of Set Noriku in particular, who um in 16th century Japan during a uh feudal wartime uh established this uh way path of uh peacemaking through uh the very heightened uh ritual of tea, serving tea uh to the very powerful. And out of that aesthetic came out this notion that something that has been broken, something that is rusting away or worn uh thin, are more beautiful because they are uh have gone through this journey. And and so when uh the tea ware inevitably breaks in an earthquake-prone uh Japan, um, the family of tea masters will often keep the fragments for several generations uh before they give it to a Japan lacquer master. And Japan lacquer is uh made from uh Urushi, uh which is from poison sumac. It's a notoriously difficult craft to learn. Um, and um this uh mastery leads into mending these broken pieces, but instead of um you know, let's say super gluing it back together to make it look like it nothing was ever damaged, uh Japan Ackermaster instead mends uh in a way that heightens the fractures and uh uh sprinkles gold or um paints gold, um pouring it into the fractures, and sometimes even going further to embellish uh and add on pieces uh as if to say that the fragments which are beautiful in themselves can be amplified into a new creation. And the Kintsugi uh T-ware is more valuable than the original, recognizing that this bowl was created twice. Um and it's such a beautiful metaphor, and I have a chapter in my new book, Art and Faith, The Theology of Making, uh, that just came out this year, uh on Kintsugi, and how theologically it is so powerful uh and and it's a perfect way to understand Jesus' post-resurrection appearance. And uh this this book um is all about this theology that leads into new creation as an artist reading the Bible as as a book of making. Um and the post-appearance um of Jesus' post-resurrection journey um indicates that Jesus chose to be human uh after all that he's gone through. He could have appeared as anything, uh uh and yet he chose to be human. And not only he chose to be human, but he chose to be a wounded human. His nail marks is with him as he shows uh Thomas. And and that shows that even to God, um this reality of what Japanese traditional Kinsugi shows is exactly the way new creation works. Um that leads to for me to consider and for us to consider if Jesus to Jesus uh humanity being human is so important that that's what he the that's the emanation that he chose, but also that his wounds, through his wounds we are healed, and through his wounds this new creation flows out of, then our journey of you know uh going through dark times and fragment fragmentation, ourselves being pulverized, that that's just as important uh to God. We may not see it that way, going through trauma. Um you know, I have my share of darkness going through 9-11 and the subsequent uh trauma that um affected my life deeply, but um those are ways that I can enter into um healing and new creation. Um and and that uh you know metaphor is very powerful for me as I think about our marriage, I think about my art, think about my life.
Michael John CusickYeah, the Kinsugi bowl that we have, and I first discovered Kintsugi through you a couple of years back, it's it's just beautiful to look at, and I can gaze upon it like one might gaze upon a more traditional religious icon or a cross. And I just want to say for any listeners, if you've not seen Kintsugi, you can certainly Google it. But it can sound like this sentimental idea, like, well, isn't that nice? The broken pieces get filled in with gold. But it really is quite stunning how I can always imagine the original piece. Like, oh, that's nice. But to see the cracks filled in, the texture, um almost fighter-like veins, and how it goes outward, is just really remarkable. And I do consider it a kind of icon uh that that mediates the heart of God. Um will you talk a little bit about how and either or both of you about how making, whether making an organization and bringing to life the vision of restoring others, or Mako for you as an actual visual artist and painter, how making contributed to healing trauma?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, uh art has a way of capturing honest, vulnerable reality of being human, and true art um uh doesn't shy away from what is difficult or dark. Um, and sometimes it can get caught up in that uh negative cycle or um it might become only capturing the darkness. Um and I have tried as an artist um to understand uh my own art as a way to bring hope and light um through darkness. And and so even after 9-11, my exhibit coming up in New York at High Line 9 Gallery uh is called Remembrance, and there's a dash between re and Membrance as we think about Kinsugi. Um, you know, thinking back on 9-11, thinking back on Columbine High School massacre, and thinking back on 3-11, uh tsunami and uh nuclear, ongoing nuclear meltdown. Um that is um something that we have to reconnect, remember. Um and uh my art has has always been part of that journey of looking at something ground zero uh uh in in a most honest way, but then uh creating something out of that through or beyond that. And uh so my my exhibit, my art uh being being exhibited um is is going to um be an emblem of that journey. Um when I met Hejin and when we began to journey together, and um I realized, and I walk into her law office um and uh um I'm astonished because the office, the staff, the the her team has this incredible, dynamic, uh beautiful, uh enjoy presence. Um her office does not look like a lawyer's office, um, but it is uh partly because she's now married to me. It is like a gallery. There's a lot of art and welded, um, and and you you know you walk in and you hear laughter. You hear you know people um working hard, but but it is it is something that brings and on the walls uh pictures of children in India that they have dedicated themselves as a law office to volunteer themselves to help those who need their uh help, legal counsel, and so forth. And and to me, that you know is is a reality of how you know it's not just art, right? It's it's it's uh it's all of our endeavors, all of our what we can um do uh in terms of bringing light into the darkness. And and so I I'm I'm so um honored to uh you know learn more about that and and to be part of Embers International.
SPEAKER_01Embers International as an organization, of course, its mission is to restore people. So, you know, that's really um kind of obvious. That's what we do and what we try to accomplish. But also at the same time, um, if any of uh nonprofit leaders are listening to this podcast, I want them to know that um each one of you are a maker.
Michael John CusickYeah.
SPEAKER_01Because every day you're making this organization possible, you're making programs, you're making um uh systems, and you're making um a better team. Every single day you are a maker. And when we do that, what happens, I realize, is that uh we become more and more of a full, fully human that God intended us to be. And um, through that process, there is a restoration that happens to the makers, ourselves, because we become more of a full human that reflects God. And you know, when I started this um co-founded Embers International, uh I uh in 2016, and then we really started our operation in 2018. Um thinking about then and thinking about today, and you know, I have been um going through this journey of making through this organization and of this organization that I am a um a better version of myself today than then. I have a more compassion and more knowledge and more understanding of the clients that we serve now and then. And same thing with being a lawyer too. You know, um I tell my lawyers that you are a maker and you make a case for your clients, that you um uh make uh um uh argument and strategy to represent and advocate for on behalf of our client. And as we do that, we become not only a better lawyer, but also a better person, more restored person that can embrace trauma and and and be healed through it and help other people be healed. Um so I think yes, making and restoration has this direct connection if we understand it and um not only understand but be aware of it every single day, that what we do has a deeper meaning and our restoration uh can be even more powerful.
Michael John CusickThat is powerful, and it goes back to something you said, Hajin, at the beginning, where you said that as you were healing from trauma, you were being remade. And it was the being remade that then uh gave you a vision and allowed you to step into helping to remake others. And Mako, in your previous writings, culture, care, and in silence, um you talk about this word generativity. And I think we don't use that word a lot, and it's often misunderstood. But what you're both talking about, you don't have to be a world-famous visual artist or to take an art class to be a maker. We're all bringing that sense of there's something inside of us that we're generating, and our wounding and our trauma wants to shut that down. It's like it it wants to put a lid on it. So I love this connection between making not as something in and of itself, although that's valuable, but as a healing, restorative, really essential part of being human.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and uh we think of making as making something new or making something that's innovative and never existed before. But really, what making years on this side of eternity is always dealing with the fractures that that has happened before, and out of that trauma and fracture, we uh begin to see something new. And uh the great example of this is uh you look at all of the art and literature uh that has come out directly out of front lines of wars. Um you have C. S. Lewis, you have you know Jared Tolkien, you have J.D. Saddinger, you have Hemingway, you have Shakespeare uh you know creating his theatre, Globe Theatre, outside of London because of the Black Plague, right? And you have uh Frangelico painting during the height of Black Plague and ushering in basically the Renaissance. All these people were faced with enormous challenges and darkness of their own time, and and they chose to create in response to that. Um, and and so you know, I think of our time as a very significant moment um in reality of uh faith, you know, faith not only facing the darkness, but acknowledging that it is through the fragmentation and fractures and and and difficulties that oftentimes something enduring will come out. Um, I talk about generativity, and that word has been always been important to me. My father uh was a renowned uh pure scientist, uh researcher, uh Bill Labs, and um he I was born in Boston because he was doing his work on generative grammar with Norm Chomsky. And um, so I grew up with that term, and there, as you noted, uh there are several uh definitions of this. Um, but I I always connect it to Genesis. You know, I always say uh generativity is creating Genesis moments, uh, which means no matter what happened yesterday or you know, months before, or 10 years ago, 20 years ago, this is a Genesis moment right now. And everyone has an opportunity to reframe their past and to create the future. Um, and and to me as an artist, the best way to do that is is to be present, uh, fully present in the moment, to be able to observe what is in front of me as a visual artist. Um, but for any kind of making, um, you you know the Amber's International and Shirement Associates, uh, lawyers uh have to pay attention to the person and organizations that they're helping uh be present in in that sense. And and so um we are in that business of uh walking into very traumatized and fragmented realities, um, and we have the opportunity to stay present in that um until we see beauty in the fragments.
Michael John CusickWhere do either of you see a proliferation of beauty and making in the midst of the pandemic? And there's part of me that wants to say, you know, now that we're out of the pandemic, but we all know that, especially in the part of the country you're in, that we're not out of it. So it seems like things have been stagnated, and yet I see pockets of light and hope and creativity.
SPEAKER_01I think one thing um that I found is that there is a new uh appreciation for the frontline workers right during this pandemic, that um they are uh uh they have received now this spotlight because we recognize, uh which we didn't before, um, how important they are. You know, whether you are you know frontline or at the hospitals or making deliveries um to different homes. I mean, it there's certain shift that happened during the pandemic that we're still kind of processing. Um, but you know, we see this world where um now we have a common language that you know Malko explains. Um that can be, they can, I think, translate into if we were to do it right and if we were to be patient about this global pandemic as we are still kind of going through it, that um the beauty of having this common language globally and having the common understanding of what trauma is and how we can come out of it all together. And to do that, we actually need one another globally, right? I mean, this is virus. So just because we have the vaccine and we are vaccinated doesn't mean that we are safe. We need everyone in the world to be protected. So um I think the sense of um oneness, the unity that is for good, that we need to look after one another. And me protecting myself and just being selfish is really not going to help you with that um purpose. So I think that's something that I have seen. What about you, Malcolm?
SPEAKER_02Malcolm Gladwell, uh, very early on in the pandemic, uh, noticed several things that uh um paradigm shifts that are happening in culture, and he calls it the weak link uh society versus strong link society. And um, he identified that all of a sudden, you know, before the pandemic, we were a strong link society, which means like the people on top make gets all the decisions uh and influence. Um, so strong wins basically because they dominate the conversation. And and you know, quickly the pandemic has turned us into weak link society, which which means there are many people, essential workers who we never paid attention to before, Amazon deliverers and you know, nurses and teachers that that literally stood on the front lines as as the most important um part of uh society moving forward. And and he compares this to uh basketball versus soccer. In basketball, if you have one very you know um incredible player, uh you know, you you can do okay. Um you can still win the game, but in soccer, uh if you have one weak player, uh the other team can exploit that and and uh you're not gonna win too many games. And and so given that we have shifted into weaklings society, and um I think the reality now is to look at moving forward, even post-pandemic, so-called quote unquote, um you know, will that remain um to be um a possibility? And I I I think that is where generativity can come in. Um when we realize that there's not a single person on this earth today that has not been directly impacted by COVID virus in some way. I mean, that's a remarkable statement to make, uh, one that we probably couldn't have named before. Um, we didn't have a situation which all of us share, you know, my experience of um being a ground zero resident in 9-11 in New York City, you know, that's not everybody's experience. Uh my trauma, what we went through as ground zero uh residents and raising my children there, is relevant to that particular area and can be you know applied, but today it's as if everybody was in that ground zero zone, faced the same trauma, same um issues of um you know what happens after uh with post-trauma um issues. And and we we uh so so I call that uh this shared curse that um can be a uh common grace kind of uh experience where uh because we can identify with each other, um, you know, somebody in Assam, India is facing the same kind of trauma that I am going through, the same kind of fear, same kind of anxiety, uh even worse, uh, because they're um uh more exposed to the vulnerabilities. But you know, we can be aware of that, and as uh Embers International has done, they raised $80,000 to create an oxygen tank plant in Assam, India. And to me, that was just the most beautiful sign of generativity, uh, because this oxygen tank plant in a rural hospital will mean that this area, which is uh often cited as kind of next nexus of human trafficking, uh lawyers associated with embers, uh like IJM, International Justice Missions, and others, can have at least create a safe space for uh these immigrant workers to find safety. Um and so my you know issues uh you know that I have to deal with in prison, New Jersey is directly connected with that person uh who is you know journeying uh perhaps from China into India, I don't know, but you know, and and you know, and you can actually buy the tea, Assam tea, which is known for its remarkable flavor, uh, you know, English tea uh developed in that region. And so while we drink this tea, we can be thinking directly about the impact uh of uh various decisions that we we can make today to help that person who is picking tea in a sum.
Michael John CusickYeah, that is so beautiful. Hajin, will you talk about the website and how people can learn more about Embers International?
SPEAKER_01Sure. Thank you for that question. Um if you go to EmbersInternational.org, it's E-M-B-E-R-S, um, you'll be able to see what our organization is all about, our programs, and how you can um support the work and participate. Um Embers International is ultimate goal is to prevent trafficking. And prevention work is really hard and and it's it's rarely emphasized because it's so hard to um showcase the measurable outcome. Um, because how do you how do you showcase something that didn't happen, right? However, the work that we do, the protection, restoration, and empowerment, and the specific program that we have that targets the two generations living in the red light area right now is going to ultimately lead to that prevention. So right now, our um team in India is located in Turbay, Red Light District in Mumbai, India, and we have this beautiful children's center called Sahasi Embers. Sahasi in Hindi means courageous. So we have a courageous little flames that are receiving services, and also we have courageous little flames are serving our children and the woman there. So we have this very um important uh community hub and that offers daycare to the children who are born in Tubrothols and living in the red leg area. Um we provide educational center and counseling, legal aid clinic, which is the only free legal service for the entire uh Turbate Red Lake area, and then we collaborate with the Indian government and a vocational training. The people that we serve uh through the Sahasi Ember Center is um just really remarkable resilient people, but they have suffered through generational exploitation. So if you can imagine uh a woman who are trafficked into the brothel and trapped in that slavery, um, you know, I've gone into the brothels as an undercover, so I've seen the condition of uh these places where the women are being abused every day. Um, if you are a minor, then you are talking to the to the back in a locked door with no windows for years until you are major or you look like a major uh and your will is broken because of the daily beating and exploitation, uh, so that you don't run away because you're just so broken. And then finally you're let out and you look like you are there voluntarily, but they are really not. And now uh they the condition that they live in is is terrible, it's filthy. Uh, but inevitable inevitably what happens is that they uh get pregnant and they give birth to a child. And if you can imagine where this child will grow up, this child doesn't have her her own bed or her own room or playroom or any sanitary place that they she can be placed. So where she grows up, if you can imagine with me, is under the mother's bed. And this is very bad that mother gets um abused every night. And this little child will experience everything that mother experienced under the bed. And if you can also imagine this little infant child under the mother's bed at night, this child will cry because the child is longing for the mother, hungry, wakes up at night, you know, all of you uh parents outside can uh out there can empathize with you know what will happen to this child at night. Um, so this child will be force-fed alcohol and drug as an infant so that she will keep quiet at night and not disturb the business in the brothels. So that's the life of these children that we serve. And in a certain age, they'll become either sex slave or uh traffickers or pimps, um, if you're a boy. And that's the kind of destiny that is predetermined for them. And unless there's an intervention that empowers the child as well as the mother, there's no hope for them to leave that red leg area. So we have this two-generational approach where we are now sending the children who are born into brothels to private school so they can get the best education they can get. They can learn what human dignity and respect and love and care is through our team at Sahasi Embers at that center. And now we're planning on empowering their mothers. This is going to be a long journey, and this, as you can imagine, uh kind of work is um is very difficult. It's very complicated. You know, we deal with our own traumas. Um, you know, I I remember, you know, I me dealing with my own traumas, and I thought that was complicated. But the trauma that that our clients go through is just a lot deeper and more complicated, especially because um some of them and most of them, a lot of them have experienced this for generationally. So can we can we step in and stop this intergenerational evil so that these children have a hope for the future? So um, you know, that's the message that Embers is giving to the world that yes, there is still hope because we understand the Kinsuki life that we have. Um, and we know that these children can also experience that kinsuki life.
SPEAKER_02You you just had a person come out of that and and and become a lawyer, right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so one of our um, so we also have a legacy education program, which is um educating um the survivor of trafficking as well as at-risk youth uh for higher education. So we have a survivor that was rescued by our partner organization in India, and uh we were able to help this um survivor with a higher education. She wanted to study law, and so she just completed the law school and became a lawyer.
Michael John CusickThat is incredible. In the midst of in the midst of a horrifying and dehumanizing uh existence, you know, when we when we hear about Jesus going after the one and leaving behind the ninety-nine, we often we often think of that almost exclusively in terms of evangelism and you know, go to heaven instead of hell. But Jesus goes after the one to take them out of that horror, whether they become a believer or not, there's light there in that darkness. Um and I love how you talk about the Kinsugi life because everybody can relate to that and automatically understands that. Is there is there anything being done with Embers International with the prevention side? I've done a lot of work and speaking around the demand side, and that seems like such a deep, deep cultural issue that seems like it's a rock so big you can't move it.
SPEAKER_01So education is a is a key. They um uh uh making the public aware of the problem and um also um you know making sure that you know we don't do rescue work, but our partner organizations do, and uh making sure that the public understands that there is no impunity uh for this type of crime is also very important. But also what's really important is empowering the community. So we have our South Ambers team will go out to the community interverbat like area every single day to do community outreach. And what they do is they look for people who are in need. So just recently uh we found two children ages six and eight, both girls, and their dying mother on the street because they were basically abandoned by their family. So they were on the street uh just about a couple months ago during the pandemic, and mother was really sick. So our Sausember team was able to um bring them to Sausenberg Center um and um take care of the children and then send the mother to the hospital. Four days later, the mother passed away from TB. Now these two children are orphaned. But for our team's community outreach and being in the community and being the eyes of the community for these children, these children would have been just trafficked and sold into the brothels. And you know, we are very assured of it because that happens all the time. So the prevention work uh has to happen not only through education and the rescue work and the legal avenues, but also by empowering the community to be the watchdog for other people, to be there to um embrace these kind of children from the street. And we were able to place them in a government shelter afterwards so that they can have a long-term home. Um the traffickers, um, these criminals, what they do is they prey on the vulnerability of the people. And they're not, by nature, courageous people at all. So when communities come together and um and and and when we look at these children who are the least to regard in the society who are born into the brothel, when we come together and be their protector, their family, their advocates, the criminals cannot really touch them. They don't have the courage to do it. But we need to empower the community to do so in the local areas.
Michael John CusickSo I'm hearing a theme between even what you did with your law firm, where you're very intentional about creating a certain kind of culture, to how your organization is going in and going deep into the culture, trying to affect it at a systemic level as opposed to just going there and giving some handouts or doing some kind of dramatic intervention and then leaving. And that's that's really neat. So as I hear both of you talk about Kintsugi, it's just such a kingdom of God reality, the Malcolm Gladwell idea of the weak links, that it's the weak links of those trafficking victims in India that they're they're allowing the light to shine through, and people are showing up and making in that place. And isn't that the truth? That the the kingdom of God shines most most uh intensely in the darkness, but we have to show up and we have to risk and to make. Isn't it true that that there really is a risk in making? I mean, whether you're painting a canvas or starting an organization or trying to have a baby.
SPEAKER_02Yes, totally. And and that that's one thing that I treasure about um journeying together, is that ears and years of my discipline of making, which is risk taking and and being entrepreneurial and creating something that didn't exist before, right? And and every time I face uh Canvas, um I am invoking uh new creation, right? This is a genesis moment. I am I'm I'm trained to trust my intuition to um to carry me into the unknown. Um and and so the mystery of creativity and making has a uh powerful uh way of inviting the world into um into hope. Um and because without hope you can't create, right? So without hope of uh you know me painting something and it it somebody is going to see that, um you know, like why why paint it, right? Or um you you can also paint in a way that is strictly for the audience of one, you know, for for God, uh for you to offer that to God. And even that requires hope and faith, right? So now that mechanism, that intuitive mechanism that I've built up over the years, apply to what's happening in India, apply to embers, apply to creating uh imagination, sanctified imagination to work toward restoration and healing, right? Um rather than co-opting it, let's say, for uh selfish purposes. Um that, you know, because of what I do as an artist, and I am invoking the news through my work, that space, that gallery space, the studio space here, becomes an ideal way to communicate what is happening uh to the least of these, to the uh the weaklings, and and to raise them up to become the powerful influencers that we believe that they can become, and they already are, um that you know that makes me realize that uh again, going back to Kintsugi, this idea of a Kintsugi master beholding the fragments and not even trying to fix it, right? They're just just looking at it and looking at it until the fragments become beautiful and complete in itself. And then the work begins to create something new out of that experience. But the Kinzugi master doesn't start until he or she can see the landscape in the fragments, he or she can see uh the river, a golden river. Um, and and that that to me is is a way that we can move into hopefully post-pandemic time and keep the value of weakling society, that we we can be the you know, connect the mem dismembered, uh fragmented way in the that our culture certainly has experienced. But but going forward with trauma, with with you know the this this uh deep rift that we experience uh in the world, um, those are ways that uh imagination can create into the new. When I hear stories of um children being rescued and and names of these particular children who go through Sahati Embers and becoming nurses and lawyers, and and you know, I I I just see that story as so much more beautiful than anything that I can create. And and yet I'm privileged that my work can connect with that and and be part of that journey. Um for them, for me, for us, but but but also as as we share that with the world, um, you know, this is something that everybody can participate in.
SPEAKER_01Isn't my husband so wonderful and beautiful? And I can listen to him all day long.
Michael John CusickMe too. I've always Marco, your voice has always been so soothing and um from a trauma perspective, and you know, I I just spent four hours today doing an intensive with people with trauma, there's something that's just so grounding, and your your your words are beautiful, just like your paintings. But what strikes me in what you said is um that nothing would exist today without imagination. And Hajin, without somebody, you and your colleagues saying, Okay, here's this horror in Mumbai, but let's imagine what could be done, and then to think about just like Mako, you're generating beauty in paintings that you're through your organization, Hajin, generating this healing, and then to hear the stories of others who would otherwise just go by the wayside, they're becoming generative. And I think about that baby under the mother's bed all night, that as that child grows, they have no capacity for imagination unless someone else imagines for them a different life. And so it's really impossible to heal from trauma without saying things could be different. There is another another way, another reality in which to live. Um so finally, I heard you talk about resurrecting the Kinsugi Academy. I want to have you share with people how they can learn more about that, and then I've got to come back to tea because um at the culture care conference, you allowed myself to go to a high tea ceremony with Kiko. And so what's the tea? Can people buy that at the Embers International site or can they sign up for it?
SPEAKER_02Well, maybe maybe we'll start creating it with Assam, you know, with uh, you know, with people there. But uh Kinsiki Academy is relaunching, and we're so excited to have the uh Kinsuki Master from Japan come on 9-11 in New York City to relaunch this effort to bring this um conversational heating and practice of healing that anybody can do, anybody can learn to do, but we need certified trainers. So we're gonna be certifying these people that we selected and um joining with them. And along with them is uh friend Kurt Thompson, Dr. Thompson, who is a psychiatrist, and we will talk about healing and trauma. Shan Ray Firch, who's a uh National Book Award-winning poet and writer, who is also a professor of forgiveness at Gonzaga University, and and um several others will join us and create resources for for these. And I I I could not have done this exhibit um without uh Ajahn's help, and actually her entire team has uh been my team, and they're they're um organizing you know exhibit, uh these these gatherings, um, you know, limited as they may be today, uh we're we're gonna be creating uh resources uh so that other others can take advantage of it uh in remote sessions.
SPEAKER_01Our website is being uh created right now, so it's not available just yet, but it's going to be www.culturalcarecreative.com, and you will find more resources on that about Kinzuki Academy. And ultimately, with the certified instructors that we're going to train, uh we want to be able to raise up what we call Kinzuki peacemakers. And these are the people that are gonna come with us to conflict zones and present Kinzuki to places like Palestine, Israel, India, Pakistan, Japan, Korea, UK, Ireland, to show that yes, peacemaking is possible, restoration is possible, forgiveness is possible, healing and restoration is possible in these deeply, deeply rooted trauma areas. Just to follow with follow um uh Marco's talk about the risk taking and the hope uh that we have, I think ultimately um risk taking can lead to restoration or making only if it's motivated by love. So when you take a risk, you take a risk because it's really worth it. And when we find it, I mean the only reason why I think that we find it's worth taking that risk is because we have a little bit of love towards it. You know, I took a risk of starting my own law firm because I love practicing law. Oh, you know, it's it's very broken. You know, law is imperfect and it was far from it, far from perfection. But I love law and because I know uh God is the lawgiver and the true meaning of law when it was given to us uh from the very beginning of this world, um, I, you know, I created, co-created Embers International because I love these clients who are awaiting restoration. And um, so I think I think all of that um is to say that you know what we do through Kinsuki Academy um and Malco's making and my work as a lawyer and nonprofit leader is that um is really motivated by love. And I think Kinsuki represents that love because without love for this broken vessel, we wouldn't actually make it into mend it into new.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and as Vincent Dango said, the greatest work of art is to love people.
Michael John CusickSo we've wrapped up another episode of Restoring the Soul. We want you to know that Restoring the Soul is so much more than a podcast. In fact, the heart of what we have done for nearly 20 years is intensive counseling. When you can't wait months or years to get out of the rut you're in, our intensive counseling programs in Colorado allow you to experience deep change in half day blocks over two weeks. To learn more, visit restoring the soul.com. That's restoring the soul.com.