Moreau Integration 3 Donovan Michael Urbaniak Moreau Semester 2 4 March 2022 No Painless Lessons Andrew Donovan found the utmost beauty in imperfections. After he left his position as head developer at Blizzard Entertainment, Mr. Donovan became infatuated with the Japanese art of Kintsugi. Kintsugi is the art of gold joinery, a method of repairing pottery by joining broken pieces together with lacquer mixed with gold dust. This method arose from the idea that imperfections could and should be highlighted and respected. The breaking of the ceramic is the requirement for this beautiful craft to begin. Breaks and cracks give birth to glistening beauty if treated with care and given time. He carried this perspective with him all of his life. It helped him to stay grounded and roll with the punches so to speak. He took pride in growing over every obstacle he encountered. He was strong for the people he kept closest rather than himself. He had people to fight for so he always had a reason to keep his head above water. He truly believed that “It’s easy to feel as if we’re standing two inches away from a huge canvas that’s noisy and crowded and changing with every microsecond. It’s only by stepping farther back and standing still that we can begin to see what that canvas (which is our life) really means, and to take in the larger picture.” (“Why We Need to Slow Down Our Lives” by Pico Pyer - Moreau Semester 2 Week 1). He matched met and toppled his challenges through his ability to take on the proper perspective for any situation. Andrew held the belief that strength for its own sake can help bring a person peace and confidence but using strength for the benefit of others was where joy came from. He was once told to “Take care of your mother while she is still alive and be yourself” (Theodore Hesburgh - Moreau Semester 2 Week 2). Such simple commands guided his entire life. He had always believed that filial piety was the basis for a good upbringing and was a sign of a virtuous person, but it was not until he became a father himself that he saw how important it was to reciprocate the love his parents gave to him and his siblings. Though his parents remained active and lucid until their passing, Andrew and his siblings made sure that they had no worries in their golden years. They were large parts of all of their grandchildren's lives, and Andrew was incredibly grateful for that. His parents' resilience and endless love were key inspirations for his own way of life. Though he lived in the light and on the right side of the law, Andrew was never one to shy away from the darker side of life. Death, hopelessness, unfairness, and absurdity were things he chose to face head on. In his eyes, ignoring negative things was a surefire way to also lose sight of what is truly positive in one’s life. He knew that “it’s in facing the darkest realities of life that we find light in them”(Sister Theresa Aletheia Noble - Moreau Semester 2 Week 3). If the most dark and absurd of all of life’s truth, the fact that every living thing is marching towards death from the day of its birth, contains light, Andrew questioned, then how much positivity must the pure and beautiful things in life contain. It was through this mentality that Andrew was able to make peace with death and other frightening things. Their existence defines that which is good in the world. Andrew found pleasure in many things in his life, but one facet of life that drove Andrew ever onward was the prospect of discovering new things around every corner. When asked the question ,“What is something you are doing when you lose track of time,”(“Navigating Your Career Journey” Meruelo Family Center - Moreau Semester 2 Week 4) Andrew would always answer, “Diving into something I know nothing about.” Intellectual curiosity and a willingness to try new things whenever possible made the world incredibly exciting to Andrew. He traveled to countless countries, becoming fluent in Japanese and Korean, and making new friends wherever he went. His curiosity also spread into the realms of the arts. He was an avid music listener and musician, delving into obscure musical rabbit holes or practicing the myriad of instruments he taught himself to play for hours every week. His intellectual curiosity truly bloomed at the University of Notre Dame where he was able to pair his academic interests with meaningful social justice endeavors. It was there that he discovered that learning is not just for the betterment of oneself but is also a way to prepare oneself for a life of serving others. The more he learned about a wide range of things, the better equipped he was to help in a wide variety of situations. Andrew did not view his life’s vocation as a concrete thing. He certainly knew that starting and raising a family would be a part of it, but with so many interests, he had plenty of career directions that would have brought him contentment. While discerning his career path, his brother Michael emphasized his ability to grasp things quickly and get along with a wide variety of people (Discernment Conversation - Moreau Semester 2 Week 5 ). Ultimately, he pursued the field of software development due to its multidisciplinary nature and a widespread need for it. He used his skills first as a loyal employee, then as a fair and grounded leader. He worked in the social justice field, the cybersecurity sector, and even the entertainment industry. In all of these varied jobs, he made sure that he maintained professional and personal integrity. He made sure that the working environment he was a part of or was creating promoted the wellness of all of those it touched. Aiming to produce the most good possible was always a top priority. While it can almost certainly be said that Andrew Donovan lived a “good life,” his life was not without struggles. Struggling for a large portion of his life with mental health issues, Andrew was constantly working on new methods of dealing with his emotions and processing neurological responses which he could not control. In his youth, he used a three person chess board with pieces representing different elements of his psyche and the different sides of the hexagonal board representing different modes of being. Things like this made it evident that introspection and self-reflection were deeply ingrained processes that formed his character. While such complex mental processing exercises helped him to discover much about himself and process challenging ideas from a young age, incredible focus inward can “surface unproductive and upsetting emotions that can swamp us and impede positive action” (“The Right Way to Be Introspective” by Tasha Euric - Moreau Semester 2 Week 6). Andrew was always seeking an equilibrium between letting his mind run free and potentially out of control and keeping his whirlwind thinking contained and potentially bottling up his consciousness to the point of explosion. Luckily for him, he did not have to take on this challenge alone. All of his life, Andrew was surrounded by caring friends and his ever-present, infinitely loving family. As a young teen, he could be argumentative and judgmental. He was once told that, “Bridging the gulf of mutual judgment and replacing it with kinship is tricky indeed,” (Tattoos on the Heart by Gregory Boyle - Moreau Semester 2 week 7) but it was also incredibly rewarding. He amassed a large network of companions of all backgrounds and beliefs through his acceptance and willingness to give his time and effort. These people made every day of his life better. In closing, Andrew Donovan’s approach to life was captured by the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre: “Man is not the sum of what he has already, but rather the sum of what he does not yet have, of what he could have.” Andrew always strove for more. He did not do this out of dissatisfaction with what he had. He did this because he knew there was always more out in the world to learn, fall in love with, or share with others.