172. ...a little bit better than yesterday.
(Morning thinking)
In his Meditations Marcus Aurelius suggest that “Perfection of character” is to “live each day as if it were your last, without frenzy, without apathy, without pretence”.
It brings to mind “best is the enemy of good”. Voltaire seems to have written that a good writer is limited by the insistence on perfection. Do your own googling. Insisting on perfection above all else makes it harder to see progress.
Not perfect but a little bit better than yesterday might be a more useful outlook.
Perfect is unattainable almost by definition right? What is ever flawlessness in EVERY aspect? The complex and subjective nature of things makes it practically impossible. Your standards will be different from mine, from hers, theirs, his over there, across cultural norms from nation to nation.
Is perfection a necessary asymptote? A point we aim toward but can never reach.
So if we aim for perfection of character, attempt to “be the best we can be we”, should we also accept that it won't be a journey with a conclusive destination? I mean, apart from the fact that we’ll for sure be dead. Nothing is permanent.
I find it quite easy to accept impermanence - there's no shortage of evidence. I will definitely die. I will cease to exist. That's not so scary. I don't see any evidence that I existed for the billions of years before I was born and I don't find that scary.
We don't know when we’ll die. That uncertainty could be scary but it's softened if we live each day with the certainty that it COULD be our last. If we can engage with that truth and remain steadfast and calm, engaged fully in the day by bringing our whole, truthful, self we can say that we are living with integrity, on a path toward perfection.
An unattainable perfection. And that's fine.
Morning! I haven't been in here much. I think there's a finite allocation of writing energy and mine has been taken up elsewhere recently. I hope the other writing projects will eventually be something I can share.
I hope you're able to have a lovely day, show up in it with curiosity and integrity and truth. Get right on it!
Thanks for reading.
Paul.
My view is imperfection, is coded into all things as a call to grow, change, learn. If things were perfect there would nothing to do or be done.
As above so below, that fact we are imperfect and fractal of the whole it means that energy of creation is also likely imperfect by design......it certainly takes the pressure off viewing that way.