"Good Enough"

A little bit over a week ago, I made a comment to a friend that I was "learning that there's a difference between the good and the perfect." She provided a thought-provoking response:

You forgot that there's also "Good Enough." I can tell you that it's a fine place to be.

I've been turning that one over & over in my mind ever since then, and I'm still not sure what I think. I will admit that I've often been one to focus (in my own endeavors) on the things that need improvement, the flaws--the whole 'you'll have to do it better next time' impulse. It's possible that I've been living under the mistaken presumption that if I'm not living an ideal life, that I'm doing something terribly wrong. And frankly, in a year when the wheels just about came completely off, that mindset has not helped. Because it's been anything but ideal.

Yes, I know: I should be thankful for what I have. I work very hard at that, thank you very much. Something else to be perfect at, bytheway: gratefulness.

There's something very attractive about the notion . . . she sounds at peace with both the sunlight and the shade in her life. Yet it also eludes my grasp. Instead, in every situation, I strain and strain, desperate to make the perfect, the ideal, a reality. The more important the person or endeavor involved, the harder I work, the more I fret, the greater the angst.

The schools I went to didn't help with this tendency, by the way.

Ugh. Incoherent, undeveloped, not nearly what I wanted to do. It'll have to be good enough, though.

if you're reading, just know that I'm still working on it.

(artwork by Luke Best)