Perfection

The Ballerina by Mary Tying 

Perfection is careful but not cautious.  She burned her hands many times before she learned to pay attention.  She says that hers is the most difficult job in the world.  The post was vacant for nearly three years.  Most people do not even make it past the first interview, and retirement is mandatory after nine years.  About halfway through the fifth year Perfection started feeling like she was falling apart and dissolving into space.  This recent episode humbled her.  She had never realized how strongly we resist being broken open.  She discovered that her greatest strengths grew out of her strongest weaknesses.

Perfection needs to keep moving.  Otherwise she becomes swollen with her obsessions.  She has learned to dance into the very center of her fears.  She is not impressed by false modesty and the fronts we develop to hide our beauty.  She is grieved by how fiercely we hate ourselves and yet refuse to change.  She honors our flaws.

Excerpt from, The Book of Qualities, by J. Ruth Gendler