1st October 2022

What a great word, and what a great idea. From the French word flaque, meaning puddle, comes this term that describes a street artist filling in cracks and potholes with beautiful mosaics. Currently, such an artist in France is beautifying broken paths and pavements, and quietly bringing a smile to many faces. “The goal is to spread a touch of poetry under the jaded soles of our shoes, to provoke a moment of amazement, a smile.” Nice.

A poet in the Old Testament shared the same ideals. He himself was not the Artist – just one of his early apprentices – but prophesied about him, that when he would come into the world, he would walk beside broken people and ‘bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.’ That poet may not have called it flacking, but it sounds like that to me.

His prophecy came true. The great Artist did come into the world. And what mosaics he left behind; but not on paths and pavements, but in the hearts of broken people. Lepers, paralytics, prostitutes, the blind, the mute, the dangerous, the damaged – touched and transformed by a master’s heart. The great wonder is that this same Artist is still at work. Quietly, night and day, here and there, in surprising and unexpected places, doing his sacred work, and bringing a lifetime of amazement, and a smile that cannot be repressed.

DM 1^st October 2022