Ah, perfection!  There are no worries, no job deadlines, no chores to do, no bills to pay, no obligations — everything is totally perfect.  Sound like your life?  Probably not.  And probably not anybody's!

Why is it that we perpetually work ourselves silly, thinking that, "If only (fill in the blank) everything would be perfect".  But, in reality, if that one elusive condition were met, something else would immediately jump into that "If only..." sentence.  So let's face it once and for all — Life is never going to be perfect.  Why don't we admit this sure thing (one of the few sure things in life), and get on with our lives?

If this sounds pessimistic, consider this.  If we continue to focus on what's not right, what's not perfect in our lives, aren't we missing out on all the things that are right in our lives?  Now that sounds more like pessimism to me.

Maybe we've dreamed about getting that brand new car — that perfect car.  The day finally comes when we take the keys and start it up and drive it off the dealer's lot.  Finally, it's ours!  And it's perfect!  On the way home we stop and pick up take-out food only to get home and find that the bag leaked sweet-and-sour sauce all over our new leather seats of our shiny new (but now no longer perfect) car.  Perfection is so short lived, if it ever exists at all.

Rather than being angry, resentful, or depressed when life isn't perfect, what options do we have?  Probably the best is to focus on what is right about our lives.  Easily said, but it's much easier to nitpick and find something wrong, or something that's just not perfect.  It's all in our perspective, our point of view.  Is the glass half empty or half full?

A co-worker once told me, "I always expect the worst each day and that way I'm never disappointed."  Actually, this person was perpetually disappointed.  She expected disappointment.  So rather than have do deal with daily disappointments, she resigned herself to pessimism — the opposite side of perfectionism.  Even when things go well, the focus is still on what's wrong, what's not perfect.

I'm reminded of an episode of The Twilight Zone where a man of questionable scruples dies and goes to a place where everything is perfect.  Everything he comes in contact with is perfect.  He goes to the casino and every bet he makes is a winner, every time.  Soon he becomes bored and asks, "How could Heaven be so boring?", when he is told, "This isn't Heaven!"

So, in a way, what's not perfect in our lives gives us reason to appreciate what is right.  By its very nature, the human condition is never perfect.  And wouldn't life be boring if it was.

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