Saturday, March 27, 2010

Arete'

What the greeks called excellence. But for how long did I confuse excellence with perfection? How long did I, unbeknownst to me, attempt to make the gods jealous by leaving nothing undone, being lock-stepped in days where every task had to be completed without error, on time, and without fail? If something was crooked, it was made straight, if someone was out of line, they were reprimanded, if I didn't get it all done, I chastised myself severely before falling asleep.

It's a continuum. The natural flow of time is not measured laconically in twenty four hour days, but flows from one day into the next one, and then to the next one, in curvaceous perfectiion.

Leave something left for the next time. Perfection is left to the gods.

The concept of the good measure in all things really results in a mediocrity. You can be a little above average, but you still tend to the middlin'.

A potter shapes his bowl on the wheel and sees before putting it into the kiln that it is perfectly smooth and without defect.

He makes his mark in the clay before baking it, adding his originality to the work that results in an imperfection so that no one gets jealous.

This then is true excellence.

A truer representation of things how they are naturally.

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