Wednesday 23 October 2013

The Perfectly Imperfect

A person tired of the day by having arguments about how things should be perfect sat down with an agitated state on the soft smooth sofa. Others had said that the way he intended perfection to be was not a good way. He calmed himself and sat with silence to observe his surroundings which he did whenever such things happened. After observing around everywhere from the window to the trees outside to the birds on them to the wall facing him to the kitchen on the right he looked down at himself sitting and the very first thing he saw made him curious. 

The joints joining the upper arm with the forearm looked interesting and, similarly, the joints joining the thigh and the leg. They felt quite related to something on his mind. He moved his joints for a while and watched them like in a far away dream. The movement felt so simple and yet hit him hard on his head. The simple movements told him more than what the others tried to explain to him.

They seemed so imperfect in their movement. The elbow joints bent only downwards while the knee joints bent only upwards. This was how they generally moved for everyone. For eating a fruit you had to bend your elbows down to bring the fruit to your mouth. For climbing stairs you had to bend your knees upward to bring it down at the right height. This itself was very fascinating to think about and made him smile.

The interesting thing was that even though they bent in only one particular direction their working remained in synchronization with respect to the body. The body commanded them very neatly. This made him smile even more. It was as if they listened to the commands but in their own imperfect way. Even though they looked imperfect when working their functioning remained perfect.

This made him realize the importance of imperfection......


© Aditya Subramanian, 2020