Wabi-sabi: The Japanese Concept for the Beauty of Imperfection
Desire to be deadly perfect. What is the point of all this effort?
Everything that is flawless appears “unapproachably cold” to me. A face with no flaws, no moles, no acne, and no disproportion. A perfect apple with no curvatures or blemishes. Or, a person who has never made a mistake in his life, who cannot afford to make a mistake, and who refuses to accept one. Those are beyond my consciousness’ zone of living a real life. Those perfectly perfect creatures belong to another planet, I believe.
All of these perfectionist efforts lead me to believe that there is a major flaw lurking behind the scenes. I’m not sure why, but I don’t believe there is any reason to strive for deadly perfection unless there is a compelling reason.
I don’t mean to imply that we shouldn’t wish for and strive for better. On the contrary, I am the type of person who writes word for word, sentence by sentence, until I find the best one, until I find the phrase that most resonates with me. In fact, it takes me at least half a day to complete one of these essays. What I criticize is that those who want to get close to “going out of nature’s limits of beauty” or even being dangerous enough to be the best do so when they have already achieved quite well in a subject.
