As I write the UK is celebrating the platinum jubilee of Queen Elizabeth the second. This got me thinking about what sovereignty means. Perhaps in one sense, the sovereign stands for the perfections of the people that she or he represents. Similarly, one could say that the gemstone is the perfection of the mineral kingdom or the flower the perfection of the plant kingdom. But what about those of us who achieve less than perfection in our lives? I found that the Baha’i Writings have something to say about perfection:
We humans are never going to become perfect, for perfection belongs to a realm we are not destined to enter. However, we must constantly mount higher, seek to be more perfect. ~ Baha'i Writings
In other words, the suggestion seems to be that although we should always try to do our best, and always seek to push the boundaries of our achievements, in fact, achieving perfection is beyond our reach.
I find this to be a liberating idea. The desire to be perfect, or at least to appear perfect to others, is a burden for many people. Undoubtedly this has been magnified by the exponential rise in the ways in which our lives tend to be so much more visible to both friends and strangers. The internet, like most things in life, can be both a blessing and a curse.
Images of perfection assail us from all sides, for example perfectly presented celebrities leading apparently perfect lifestyles. Perhaps some of us unconsciously emulate these symbols of perfection in the way we present our own lives, or maybe we fear of the adverse judgement of others if we don’t. We’re bombarded by airbrushed images selling lifestyles that belong to a kind of parallel world, where the smiles never end, and perfection appears before us, somehow real and tangible.
Either way, many are left feeling inadequate, marginalised or just somehow inferior. This must be particularly confusing for our younger or more vulnerable people who already have enough to contend with in the everyday challenges of life.
But let’s take a closer look at this concept of “perfection”. Is it even possible in this world? At first sight yes, we might come first in a race or get straight A’s in our exams. But if we really think about it, these passing victories rarely result in lasting happiness and before long we’re studying for the next level or setting our sights on higher achievements. It’s as if perfection itself is never enough.
One could look to nature, and if we look closely enough, we can observe that nothing in nature is completely perfect. And yet, in a sense it’s this very lack of perfection that makes nature beautiful. There’s a certain beauty in a computer drawn image, but how much more in a flower with all its little flaws and imperfections. A flawless diamond is difficult to find even in a laboratory and it only meets the industry definitions of “flawlessness” once the imperfections have been removed and it’s been cut and polished and placed enticingly in the jeweller’s window.
Rollo May, the twentieth century existential psychologist and author, also had useful things to say on this. Not unlike the Baha’i perspective, he suggested that as we live in the human realm, all human endeavour is destined to be less than perfect in some way. Interestingly, he also suggests that this is where the very human emotion of guilt comes from, namely, the gap between what “is”, and what “ought” to be in the mind of the beholder.
Poets and philosophers and theologians have wrestled through the ages with the problem of explaining this curious guilt feeling in the depths of humanity’s being. Some have concluded that its source lies in the gap between perfection and our imperfect state. ~ Rollo May, The Art of Counselling
Any activity, any poem, any work of art, will fall short in some way, and it cannot be other than this, because imperfection is a part of what it is to be human. In fact, he goes on to suggest that we should develop the “courage of imperfection”.
Ultimately May, and indeed the Baha’i Writings, encourage us to accept that, although striving to do our best is good, the result can never be perfect, and we should bear this in mind in all our efforts. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with striving and putting every effort into an activity, but to live life creatively and productively we might need to let go of too much self-criticism.
That way, when we find that despite our best efforts someone noticed that there was something missing or something wrong, we can smile and accept that, in this realm at least, it was never going to be perfect.
As Queen Elizabeth looks back upon her long and distinguished reign, she may well be thinking the same.
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