Perfection - An Elusive State

I still wonder what would have been going on in the mind of  Nadia Comăneci when she scored a perfect 10 in gymnastics. Happy and elated are words too simple to describe something when you crystallize a performance as good as anything can ever be. It wouldn't be the first time and she would repeat it six more times in her career. And she would not be the first person to do that a few others would follow. But the fact that only a few had achieved it in gymnastics tells a lot about the score or does it?


Photo Courtesy: Steven Rasmussen

There were moments of sporting greatness which any ardent viewer would be able to appreciate. I still remember how Sachin positioned himself to play a Straight drive that got him past fifty in his last innings. The ball and the bat were in a rhythmic symphony, the body was in line with the ball and the eyes religiously watched as the ball kissed the bat and glided towards the boundary. In terms of sporting achievement, perfection is an over-used word. Commentators in a mood to sensationalize everything, have forgotten the meaning of the word which has far deeper meanings.

"Human lives are sprinkled with unattainable aspirations until one breathes his last."

Something which perplexes me every now and then is how less we acknowledge that throughout our lives, we are told to aspire for perfection. Human lives are sprinkled with unattainable aspirations until one breathes his last. Certain cliches ring your ears when one thinks about perfection.

Schools expect us to be perfect students, Employers need us to be perfect professionals, Families to be perfect relatives and mothers to be good daughters. Well, you might deny that you are not a perfectionist and that you live life as a materialist appreciating it. Then you are doing injustice to your memory by not recalling the last time you wanted to have a perfect lunch with your friends, a perfect sleep, a perfect house and a perfect pet. We all are perfectionists in one way or the other though we may not admit. We may vary in intensity or intention but we all are.

Aspiring for perfection only leads to disappointment as it is a state achieved only in points and not spaces. But it is for those points that we all strive to work for in life and it is some crazy women and men who felt that it was possible had transformed human lives. Because there are certain states in life which can only be explained by one word - Perfect.

Photo Courtesy:
Steven Rasmussen

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