Journal 5-Perfection

1.  Perfection is what everyone wants to achieve, in one way or another.  But what is it exactly?  The dictionary defines it as "the condition, state, or quality of being free or as free as possible from all flaws or defects."  I'd define it as being as good as it is possible to be, where one can't get any better.  My philosophy is that nobody is perfect, or even close to perfect, because humans just aren't capable of being good in absolutely everything.  I think that even the best person in the world in a particular area isn't perfect if it's possible for them to get even a tiny bit better, which they always can.  If someone was completely perfect at something, they'd revolutionize their entire field and essentially make that thing useless, as no one could ever do any better.  I think it can be a good thing that nobody's perfect, because it allows humans to have a reason to continue to strive to keep getting better.

2.  In Tuesdays with Morrie, one philosophy of perfection was shown when Morrie said, "We're so wrapped up with egotistical things, career, family, having enough money, meeting the mortgage, getting a new car, fixing the radiator when it breaks-we're so involved in trillions of little acts just to keep going.  So we don't get into the habit of standing back and looking at our lives and saying, Is this all?  Is this all I want?  Is something missing?"  This quote means that perfection is something that has to be thought about, because one has to think about whether they are missing anything and then perfect that in their lives.  It shows perfection doesn't come from just making money or having a successful career, but that it comes from other things in life.  The things that Morrie probably thought would be closer to perfection would be things like being able to love others, to forgive, and to be able to really think about things.  Another example of this philosophy was shown when Morrie said, "  I always wished I had done more with my work; I wished I had written more books.  I used to beat myself up over it.  Now I see that never did any good.  Make peace.  You need to make peace with yourself and everyone around you."  This shows that Morrie used to want to write more books and expand his career, because, like most people, he thought it would improve his life and make it more perfect.  Later in life, however, he realized those weren't all that important to a better life, so instead he concentrated on things like forgiveness and love.  The quote shows that perfection is more about making peace with the world and finding oneself than making tons of money or writing tons of books. 

3. I mostly agree with these quotes, because I think that Morrie is right that making peace with the world is an important step towards the perfect life.  However, I think that doing things like writing books is more important than Morrie does, because books can help people learn and think about things many years after the author's death, so they're  important to being the best one can be.  (I think being the best one can be is basically the same thing as being perfect, because it wouldn't be humanly possible for them to improve.)  For the most part, though, I think love, forgiveness, and making peace with the world are some of the most important things to consider while trying to achieve perfection.  I still think that excelling in a particular subject is important to perfection, however.  The book has made me rethink perfection, because before I just thought of it as being flawless in a certain area, but now I'm also thinking of it as just being the best one can be.  

4. My open-ended question is "What do think perfection is, and do you think it's possible to achieve?"

I think that perfection is being as good as is humanly possible, and being able to say there is nothing in your life you'd really want to change or improve.  I don't think it's possible to completely achieve, because as humans, we always have something that could be just a little bit better.