Quotes of the day:

“Little by little we humans beings are confronted with situations that give us more and more clues that we aren’t perfect.” — Mr. Rogers

“There are two kinds of perfect: The one you can never achieve, and the other, by just being yourself.” ― Lauren King

“In trying to be perfect,
He perfected the art of anonymity,
Became imperceptible
And arrived nowhere from nowhere.”
― Dejan Stojanovic

This morning I read an article containing ten Mister Rogers quotes. I loved Mister Rogers when my kids were children and I love and respect him even more now. He was an amazing man and a gentle soul.

The Mister Rogers quotes led off with the one above about learning that we’re not perfect.

I started thinking about the paradox of perfection.

Perfectly Imperfect

In sports, music, art, theater, school, many strive for perfection. Many hours spent are spent practicing and studying, seeking perfection. I spend hours and hours making photographs in an effort to improve my skills. I’ve also spent much of my adult life seeking and fixing, trying to heal, trying to experience wholeness.

I finally realized that there is nothing to fix! Each of us is whole and perfect at the same time we are imperfect.

“Stop trying to ‘fix’ yourself; you’re NOT broken! You are perfectly imperfect and powerful beyond measure.”
― Steve Maraboli, Unapologetically You: Reflections on Life and the Human Experience

Have you ever met someone who appeared to have a perfect life?

Such people used to make me feel so inadequate with my emotions spilling all over the place, my not even close to perfect body and clothing, and my less than perfect life.

There so many myths of the perfect life from the fairy tales, books and happily ever after stories, to the public faces that we show—”never let them see you sweat…” to airbrushed models and the unreality of “Reality” TV.

So much effort goes into looking perfect, having the perfectly decorated house, raising perfect children.

But I have learned over the years that just as I am not perfect. No one is perfect. Covering up my “imperfections” only creates disconnection and distance between myself and others.

The people who touch me the most and teach me the most are not the ones who seem to have it all together and project a perfect image. Instead I learn from and connect with the people who have the courage to be vulnerable, to show their true selves, their failures and their triumphs.

Everyone experiences sorrow. Everyone feels like a mess inside some of the time. Everyone makes mistakes.

“There’s nothing more daring than showing up, putting ourselves out there and letting ourselves be seen.”
― Brené Brown

I’d rather show up, warts and all, and let myself be seen.

We’re all human…and humans are imperfect

When I worked on software for pacemakers and internal defibrillators I was always aware of the fact that each of us working on these life-saving devices was only human and that humans made mistakes. I knew that an uncaught mistake could possibly cause injury or death to someone using one of these devices. This knowledge humbled me and made me do my utmost every day to work to create the best software I could. But it wasn’t enough for me to do my best. We had systems for testing and re-testing, knowing that bugs in software are inevitable.

And even with the best development and testing systems in place, sometimes mistakes slip through or we don’t know what we don’t know. This is true of everything in life.

We can try to hide or cover up mistakes or become paralyzed by the fear of making a mistake and end up doing nothing, or we can focus on learning from mistakes and share what we learn with others. We can react to mistakes others make by punishing, shaming or judging. Or we can show compassion and kindness, knowing that we’re all doing the best we can.