Wednesday, April 21, 2010

An imperfect world

Me flawed?  No way!
Honor roll, best in class, A+.
Captain of this, editor of that,
valedictorian, perfect attendance.
Teach me something and I will
learn it and perform it flawlessly.
Mostly.
Tricky thing, perfection.
It can make you a little bit crazy,
and you don't even realize it until
you drop dinner on the floor by accident
and suddenly your world comes crashing in.
A world where mistakes aren't tolerated,
clumsiness is frowned upon,
starting over is not an option.
Get it right the first time or don't bother.
Right?
A piece of your integrity just flies
right out the door
when you mess up.
Surely others judge you as harshly
as you judge yourself, if not worse.
Right?
Tricky thing, perfection.
It can spiral out of control,
set up unrealistic expectations,
and actually make you worse at something
you really are good at.
"Letting go" are not words easily
spoken by a perfectionist's lips,
thought by a perfectionist's mind.
Perfection is not human.
It is devilish, no doubt about it.
Learning to let go,
learning that it's okay to be flawed,
is redemption.



Today's NaPoWriMo prompt is "Perfectly flawed," encouraging us to write about perfection and/or flaws.... but I bet you figured that out already! I didn't pull any punches on this one, wearing my heart on my sleeve as I wrote it. Kind of scary.


Day 21

5 comments:

James said...

Very true, that last line.

I really like the way "mostly" hits the breaks and then it goes to the repeated line "tricky thing, perfection." True. True.

Rallentanda said...

I just wonder if you ever really can let go!

Wayne Pitchko said...

nicely done....letting go is very hard...impossible??

Carol Mattingly said...

I've spent the last few years trying to take "perfectioin" right out of my vocabulary and I'm doing pretty good at it. And the more I do the easier life is becoming. Thanks for sharing this poem you wrote because it's a great reminder. Carol

Heather said...

James - Thanks for your comments on the form. Glad it read well for you.

Rallentanda - I don't think it's possible to entirely let go!

Wayne - Thank you. Darn near impossible, yes.

Carol - Good for you! It's difficult, but rewarding. How silly of any of us, though, to think we can be perfect!