Patched

The most cared-for and valued things aren’t the shiniest. They’re the ones with the most patches.

If you see a road with many different patches of asphalt, that means the road is well taken care of. Asphalt decays over time; that’s not a fault of the material, it’s just a truth of most things. To keep the road operational, you need to constantly be filling in those gaps and holes. The result won’t always look pretty, but it will be strong. If you don’t, the cracks will widen, and it will eventually stop being a road.

A brand-new road looks good, but it hasn’t been tested yet. You don’t know if people will put in the effort to maintain it yet. So don’t be fooled.

If you love something, that means you value it enough to repair its damage, again and again. Things get damaged, and that doesn’t mean they aren’t good. Patch those spots, and show your love.