The Patina
Excerpts from a thought piece.
Think of a thing in which its value is believed to only increase with time. Common objects of this kind include leather, clothing, wine, cheese. The changes that these sorts of objects undergo are a consequence of time passing and are therefore difficult to emulate, further increasing the value of that object. However, not all appreciate these changes, and not all allow them to happen. The restoration of artifacts can reverse these changes, and in some instances, permanently tarnish. In smoothing surfaces, correcting discolorations, and returning objects to an imagined prior state, restoration preserves material while erasing narrative integrity, severing the object from the record of use that once distinguished it. This is why I insist on education concerning the nature of the patina, and how they indeed appreciate value. In this day and age, the knowledge and approbation of patinas are diminishing, and with it, the esteem for the virtue of time itself.
The patina, left to form naturally, asserts that value can emerge without intervention. To accept patina, then, goes beyond aesthetic tolerance, additionally requiring a recalibration of judgment and education of perception. The marks of time are condoned insofar as they remain subtle, controllable, and flattering, so once they fail to meet those criteria, they are removed in the name of preservation. This approach allows time to operate only when it conforms to a predetermined image of value. So how then is temporal cognizance achieved if time is not allowed to become observable?
I have owned this sweatshirt for years; it is a parody of The Scream by Edvard Munch. Now showing the visible consequences of repeated wear, the graphic has faded and fractured, the image no longer crisp in the way it once was. You see, what was once a flat reproduction has acquired texture and variation, evidence of duration impressed directly onto the image itself. Many have remarked that the wear heightens its appeal as the piece now carries both reference to the original art and its own history simultaneously. In this way, the garment functions as a record of contact, a surface through which time is tangible, and an example of how appreciation often deepens once an object is permitted to show that it has been lived with.
The patina also applies to us as people. Again, this is an area wherein I believe there should be reform, specifically in contemporary society. There is beauty in age and in the emotional and physical components of aging. It should be celebrated, but currently, there is shame associated with the natural progression of life. I often find myself in situations where an older individual feels compelled to make a demeaning remark on their age in the form of a joke, which has since been normalized in conversation. Why is this the case? For what reason has it become an ignominy to be above a certain decade?
Is it not a blessing to amass years? to have gained a lifetime of experiences? These experiences, which often manifest in the form of grey hairs or smile lines or twinkles in eye or knowing looks, do they not only add to the beauty of the individual? The extraordinariness of reaching and living through adulthood?
Concurrently, extreme precociousness can affect the timeline of maturation. One could argue that accelerating this process could yield benefits, but to what effect? To drive inordinate changes in youth is to drastically affect developmental evolution. As life is, we live it in stages; you must first be born, be a child, adolesce, adult, grow old, and finally die. I firmly believe that a child should be a child and do what children do. I affirm that for all stages. This does not mean that adepts should be restrained, but instead calls for a restructuring towards systems that enable synchronous maturation and advancement. This way, individuals can more adequately discern the passage of time and its effects on themselves.
If a society insists on perpetual revision, it then eventually loses its ability to recognize what it has revised away, and in that loss, it forfeits a crucial respect for the dignity of accumulation, a respect for sequence, and a respect for the authority by which anything becomes itself rather than remaining new.