Perfection! Whats That About

You know the thing, sometimes we’re lucky and sometimes we’re not. I’ve had a bit of both I can tell you. and so have you for that matter so I won’t go on about it.One of my bits of good luck is I have this great friend who is as different from me as chalk and cheese, but also identical. Hang on: I don’t seem to be making any sense. No change there then. Ah where was I.

Ah yes, this friend. Well, even though he is completely different from me. I’m a bit liberal and he’s more of a “hang em high” kind of man we both like physical challenges, a glass of beer or six and share a sense of the profoundly comic aspects of life. When we were students we used to discuss every aspect of existence with a manic urgency as if time was in short supply and no one had ever considered them before:  that’s youth for you. At least you get over it but only to discover middle age and that has its own problems.

One of my theories, which has failed to be adopted by any of the worlds major academic establishments, is this. There is life on other planets, quite a lot of other planets. The reason is that God didn’t get it completely right the first time so he kept on creating worlds until he came up with the perfect being in the perfect world. That planet exists somewhere but the one we live on is not it. We are one of the flawed masterpieces God created until he came up with the perfect model somewhere far away in another solar system we are not in touch with, or even aware of for that matter.

This brings us to one of the secrets of this planet. To put it crudely, it’s what the British call, ” a bit of a cock-up”. Looked at thoroughly it doesn’t make any sense and nor do you. This whole model is riddled with the imperfections he ironed out in a later solar system but being the person he is, he wanted to leave us with our imperfections and see if we could sort it out on our own.

Current progress reports may not breed optimism but in my favourite phrase, “Never mind all that”,  gets me by in most circumstances. Living with imperfections within myself makes me a bit more tolerant about existing within this flawed masterpiece. People keep looking for solutions and that is an excellent pastime.

I’m not complaining mind you. There is no saying earth was God’s first stab at perfection. It might have been his fifth or six for all I know. Imagine living on one of his very earliest efforts. Luckily it’s unimaginable. This one’s hard enough to get by on as it is. Whatever the merits or failings of living in this early prototype,  the fact is we are all in it together.

One thing I do know is that the presence of friends and loved ones shines a light on an experience which might otherwise be shrouded in darkness. Loyalty and affection for them is one of the bedrocks on which I live my life. Whatever the merits of the world we live in, we live in it together and are dependant on each other to make the best of it we can. Perhaps the discovery of personal qualities through adversity was the master plan all the time. God Knows