The imperfect circle saves the world?

There is a fable which almost predates language that if humankind were to ever to create a perfect circle the whole of the world will cease to exist, it purpose would have been fulfilled, it would have created something more perfect than existence itself and in doing so make such existence would be impossible and we will disappear like a figment of an idle god's imagination. There is a strange logic that makes sense that something perfect can not be a subset of imperfection, just as a blond haired woman can not be a subset of men, she can be a subset of women or people but never of men. The legend is a warning against the pursuit of perfection as being something beyond us, and that we should fear ever arriving at our hoped for destination.

Just as Icarus tried to fly like a bird and melted his wings as he reached for the sun, which as ancient stories were harsh and unforgiving meant he fell to his death. There was no learning from your lessons from hard experience in those days. You did as you were told or you died, it made sense to have such harsh stories and lesson, as the world was harsh, one mistake and you were dead, obedience to your parents was not a choice, it was survival. We are lucky to live in kinder times, a unique time when, your bad choices do not immediately kill you, you are able to make many bad choices for many years and still get to not just survive but prosper, you are only ever one good decision away from having an amazing life in this world.

A life that is beyond anything humankind has ever experienced before, just thirty years ago there were no cell phone, internet, one day delivery, effective solar panels, electric cars, laptops, streaming, virtual reality, it was simpler and plainer, there was less to engage you, fewer opportunities, little tolerance. Life was poorer by every metric, health, education, poverty and a fifth of your money was spent on food( it is less than a tenth nowadays). Yet, the ability to look around and say this is less than perfect is reliably enduring, rarely has anyone looked around their own life, never mind an entire society has ever said our world is perfect and my life is perfect. Most of us would be stumped if we were asked to name one perfect thing that we have created, we can always find a fault, something that could be improved. Indeed most people prefer to remember the good old days even when the absurdity of such a statement is obvious it does not stop it feeling true.

That is because the past always becomes a story that we tell ourselves, and stories are neat and simple, they moves us closer to perfection if only by the magic of editing, a tale grows taller or longer, it cuts out the messy bits that makes it imperfect in the living of it. However stories do matter, they make reality better, they bring sense and guidance, we should curate our stories and decide which ones we want running about in our minds, and the perfect circle story is one which I hold close to my heart. It warns me against seeking perfection not just for my own good. Since when has anyone acted truly in their self-interest, most of us act against it if you judge us on our actions, we seek relief, pleasure, excuses and avoidance of any positive act that will improve our lives. On the other hand give us another person to care for and then we will take every positive action possible, dogs get take to the vet more often than their owners take themselves to the dentist, more carrots are eaten for the benefit of children than are eaten out of pleasure and good sense.

In the same way it is easier to avoid the pursuit of perfection for the good of all humanity, to prevent the end of the universe than it is ever going is to be for your own benefit. As it requires real strength to be kind enough to yourself to give up the impossible standards of perfection that we measure ourselves against in everyday life. The decision to be less than perfect, to be good enough and to settle for just being a little bit better than yesterday, or even worst just to be the best plausible version of yourself today, that feels like giving up on being perfect, that is not being the best you can be, that is not achieving all your dreams and maximising your potential. What is the point of doing something that is obtainable today when you should be a perfect version of ourselves, and that kind of judgment might sound crazy and yet it is what so many people do everyday, and they judge themselves to have failed by not being perfect, which seems like a cruel trap to put yourself in.

Whereas, if you are able to hold the story of the perfect circle in your heart and actually believe it, any day that you are not perfect, when you did not create something perfect, wake up in a perfect mood,  have a perfect journey, conversation, loving moment, everyday you were just a human doing an imperfect, good enough sort of a go at it and you did something rather than nothing. That day is a heroic day because you resisted the urge to destroy the world, and the ever better news is that no one else did either. We all did it together, we all had good enough days, we are mostly all alive still and no one was stupid enough to make anything that was perfect, and we know this because the world is still here.

And perhaps there is an ever more ancient wisdom in the story, maybe it is telling us what the purpose of our existence is, it is to have these imperfect experiences and a whole series of imperfect moments everyday because reality is designed to be imperfect, to flow and change, to be limited and chaotic, to seek order from that chaos and to fail to find it except in the journey of pursuing it. That chaos arises from order and live is the balance between them, and even that god (or force of your choice) created it so that it could experience such imperfection through us, and that is what is meant by god being within us, that witnessing presence is god experiencing the world and the silence within that witnessing is the language of god and love, it is talking through that silence and the more you listen to it the louder it becomes, the more you join god in enjoying the show and finding peace with the world. Though if we were ever to hear the silence perfectly, find complete peace and perfection, the circle would be complete, so save the world for another day and be imperfect.