Brain Food #856: If the world were perfect, it would be over

"I learned through my body and soul that it was necessary for me to sin"

Thoughts of the day

From the perfect holiday to the perfect home to the perfect life, what we are in pursuit of is often a fantastical, shapeshifting ideal, in a world that never fails to remind us of its imperfections.

Psychoanalyst Karen Horney described the need for having a ‘perfect self’ as a symptom of neurosis, identifiable in a set of behaviours that may sound familiar to many: “Forget about the disgraceful creature you actually are; this is how you should be; and to be this idealised self is all that matters. You should be able to endure everything, to understand everything, to like everybody, to always be productive.”

Yet the definition of perfection is as elusive as the achievement of the goal that the word itself implies.

According to Aristotle, a perfect entity can take on three forms: something complete, something so ‘good’ that nothing could improve it, or something that has attained its purpose.

In its actual sense, ‘perfection’ originates from the Latin perficio: ‘to finish’ (breaking down a word is a rare way to own it).

In other words, if the world were perfect, it would be over.

After all, we are all works in progress, constantly living imperfect lives.

“I learned through my body and soul that it was necessary for me to sin, that I needed lust, that I had to strive for property and experience nausea and the depths of despair in order to learn not to resist them, in order to learn to love the world, and no longer compare it with some kind of desired imaginary world, some imaginary vision of perfection, but to leave it as it is, to love it and be glad to belong to it.”
— Hermann Hesse in Siddhartha

---

Perfect does not exist; that is why we have art and fiction:

“Some sort of pressure must exist; the artist exists because the world is not perfect. Art would be useless if the world were perfect, as man wouldn’t look for harmony but would simply live in it. Art is born out of an ill-designed world.”
― Andrei Tarkovsky 

Tarkovsky’s polaroids reveal an attempt to capture the light in the everyday. To him, art is like “a declaration of love,” the ability to witness beauty despite the imperfections we will always find ourselves in.

Polaroid by Andrei Tarkovsky from the book Instant Light: Tarkovsky Polaroids from Thames and Hudson.

---

I write Brain Food out of my own desire and willingness to share what I find interesting and to inspire others, and help them see life in a different light. All of Brain Food is free, but if you would like to subscribe or pledge your support of my work by committing to a future paid subscription you can do so below: