Berlin and getting organized. What is perfectionism? Responding to several very sincere and friendly people who recently told me they see themselves as perfectionists, I would like to write a little reflection about it. Everyday life back here in Berlin is not interesting enough for as enthralling a blog as this is supposed to be. Meeting old friends, having quite good conversations, falling asleep in the sun, organizing stuff (see yesterday), drinking good coffee and listening to Germans uttering excuses for everything they do because their boss or their rules want them to to it. It is not the climate I need to thrive. So I touch the brim of my hat, nod my head and then sail off to Africa. The German spirit can’t keep my passion alive. Back to perfection. There are many ways of being a perfectionist. It is a mindset, but rather than basking in itself, it always needs some object. We can only be perfectionist about something, about wealth, love, a work of art, communication, cooking. What if you can’t yet discern your object of perfection? That seems to be a little problem. Perhaps the limits of your object aren’t there yet, it is becoming as you pursue it. So I am saying that you can be a perfectionist without having the object of perfection clearly in front of you, by trusting that it will become distinguishable as you go on pursuing it. What then, distinguishes a perfectionist from a non-perfectionist? I’d try: the urge to put something unique into being, that will have to be interpreted as perfect from a perspective we have learned to love.
August 22. Perfectionism.
