Imperfection

Imperfection

A Universal Human Reality

“There was the cat, asleep. The man thought as he smoothed the cat’s black coat, that this contact was an illusion and that the two beings, man and cat, were as good as separated by a glass, for man lives in time, in succession, while the magical animal lives in the present, in the eternity of the instant.” This is a quote from Argentine writer and philosopher Jorge Luis Borges. I found it in the New York Times best-selling book I just finished called Meditations for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman. I placed it here as a reminder that most non-human animals live only here and now and us humans, although we get to accomplish and experience way more than cats, also face each moment as a series of choices and rarely stop to just simply be.

In a perfect world, we can do and be anything we choose, and the journey is easy peasy. Unfortunately, the world is not perfect and by association neither are we. Being human means we believe that we can string moments together to achieve a perfect and happy ending, yet we often fail because by striving for perfection we fail to accept what we truly are – imperfect. And being imperfect means we sometimes make poor choices and choices are what determines who and where we are. Burkeman writes that whatever those choices have been they have led us to our current place and situation. And if we find ourselves not exactly where we wanted to be, it’s only because of our humanness.

Here’s the good news. Being human, we have the power to change. And the next choice we make can take us to a new reality. The key is that we have to accept the current reality of who and where we are – shaped by everything that came before this moment – before we can create a new dream. By recognizing what’s real and including it in our choice making, we can actually move toward better decisions and outcomes. Accepting that imperfection is a way of life sets us free to enjoy the life we have right now in front of us. In other words, acceptance can offset a fixed mindset which enables us to rejoice in the simple truth that every moment is its own reward; Take a breath, and breath it in.

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