by Colette Duval

Created on: January 15, 2010   Last Updated: January 17, 2010

The trouble with perfection is that we seem to only pursue the idea of it when we are in a state of imperfection. So my argument is right here:

Perhaps our world needs to be the way it is in order for us to strive for change, improvement and to be in a constant state of awareness of all which is unjust and unfair in the world. I believe that everything has to have an opposite in order to appreciate it, like ' happiness' which we feel only in contrast to 'unhappiness', or like the appreciation of wealth with the experience of knowing what it is like to be poor. 

My own definition of ' perfection' is not a state of status quo that has been reached and where we live happily ever after, instead it very much involves the need for constant dynamic change , for questioning and searching for answers.

I realize that this is easy to say for me, sitting here in relative comfort , with  all my bills paid, a roof over my head and thinking about my children who enjoy a good education and health, and grow up in the safety of a caring family. I appreciate  these things because I know full well that this kind of life is not the norm in the world and that whole countries and societies and individuals in it are struggling daily for plain survival. But even if I closed my eyes and were  ignorant of everything around me, despite all that I have, perfection would still be elusive because that is human nature and the nature of perfection.  It's an ideal that exists within all of us and which we spend out lives in pursuit of,  thinking ' of only...' I had more money....' if only all those starving children had food...', or ' if only I could find love , if only people cared more each other...'

There are people who of course say the world is already perfect because God made it so.  But even leaving out  a God, and having my own struggles and watching other's struggle, I somehow think that maybe this is the way it needs to be or we would all become complacent and take what we have for granted.  My definition of perfection is the ongoing pursuit of it,  and accepting that we are human and therefore not perfect . I like the idea that we can change , that we can affect change, that we strive for change and an idea that life can and should be better , but in the end ' perfection' is only reached in the journey towards it. And so, while life can be very painful and plain unjust, while some seem to have everything and others nothing, while some are affected by political oppression , poverty, natural disasters or whatever else afflictions, it is the imperfect imbalance and human suffering on  micro-and macro scales which makes me realize and appreciate that we are just on a journey full of hope, potential and change ...that to me is perfection.

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