Is there something in the human condition that yearns for perfection?  I wonder sometimes if it is only me and my “retreat time” that has allowed me to think so much about perfection.  Yet, I’m tempted to think that others must have some of this drive for perfection, too.

You see, for the past nine months or so I have been working on writing a short story.  Just a simple, fun, out of the ordinary (for me) story.  And, I’ve finished working on it, oh, about four different times.  Yet, without the deadline of a date to stop me and no other priority that takes me away from it, I’ve continued to think of new little nuances or phrases or additional scenes that I think could only improve it.  So, is this a drive for perfection?  Or, is it simply someone with nothing better to do?

I want to think it is some kind of effort toward perfection, but I also remember a professor of mine who said that in this world all symphonies are incomplete.  In other words, there is nothing in this life that will be perfect.  Nothing we do will ever be truly finished and complete and perfect.  Nothing we accomplish in this world will truly leave us thinking we have actually mastered something.  Because we have to be able to live with a little uncertainty and the knowledge that some things are simply mystery and are beyond our mastery.

How true that is.  And, yet, the effort toward perfection can sure be fun!  Just working toward a little perfection can be a grace.  And, hopefully, it makes a better story, too!