I have a new car and today I got the first ding on my door. It’s barely visible, but I know it’s there. The paint is not missing or anything, just a very slight dint that can be seen if the light hits it just right. Now that I must put up with the idea that my car is not perfect, I must not let this ding lead to the attitude that since my car is not perfect, therefore anything goes. I cannot think less of my car because of one glitch. In a way this resembles my approach to life. Since my life has not been perfect and there is plenty of evidence of more than one little ding, what should my attitude be? Since I am damaged goods (for example with several bouts of mental illness) do I do a flip and give up on life and stop striving for betterment? Since I am damaged goods do I throw in the towel and stop struggling to better myself? I pray that this not even be a temptation. If I were to give up now, that would really indicate (since only God is perfect) that I am looking for any old excuse to relinquish responsibility and accountability. While I regret my car is still not unblemished, the only way to have accomplished perfection in this sense would be to never have used it and to have warehoused it instead. I must rethink perfection and take into account the need for use. A perfect car for me is one that helps me encounter the world safely. It’s one that gets in the fray and takes me on pleasure trips as well as takes me to work and to run untold errands. The perfect car for me is one that works and is dependable and is acceptably efficient—a car with a skin of quarter inch steel is not practical. I suppose that leaving my car parked in the garage at all times is an option, but too costly an option and in the end a betrayal of the purposes for which I purchased it. My car is not a showroom car. It is a car that fulfills the purposes for which it was designed. That is the true mark of perfection.
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