Is There Such A Thing as Perfect?

What about flawless? And, isn't near perfect good enough? "It depends", would seem like the perfect answer to the question.

Or, we can settle with, "I strive towards perfection; until then I'm okay with being adorably incredible, in the meantime".

Before we get into finding the pathways to perfection, we actually have examples where perfection may have already been attained.  With some caveats, of course.

There is perfect pitch in the world of music or musicality. But it is an ability individually defined from one musical talent to another. A perfect game in baseball is  a no hit, no run game but achieving it is as varied as the ridges on different fingerprints. Is a 6-0, 6-0 tennis victory a perfect rout?  It depends because the winner could have been a college varsity player beating a junior high school champion. Ball bearings need to be perfectly manufactured for machines to run perfectly, but are they?  Let's go somewhere else, shall we?

In mathematics, 6 is a perfect number. You see, 1+2+3 = 6, is perfect because it is equal to the sum of all its proper positive divisors, namely 1, 2, and 3. You'd think that it should be common, but it's not. After the first four perfect ones, it gets rarer than observing a supernova.

1+2+3=6; 1+2+4+7+14=28; followed by the next perfect number 496, then 8128 (by the fourth, all the divisors are too lengthy to write them all down). For a very long time only the first four perfect numbers were known to the early Greeks since Euclid (the father of geometry) from 300 B.C.  That is because the next three perfect numbers are: 33,550,336; 8,589,869,056; and 137,438,691,328.  Imagine coming up with all their divisors (and adding them!}  By the time we get to the 31st perfect number, we get an astounding number of digits.

31st perfect number is 278327...880128  has a total of 130,100 digits !!

Perfect, nevertheless. It must be noted that the reason that after the 4th perfect number  modern computers with plenty of computing power were needed to calculate and enumerate the digits, based on an algorithm. 

And curiously, each perfect number ends with either a 6 or an 8 (even numbers, both).  The sixth perfect number notably ends with a 6. Biblically, we note that God created the universe in 6 days - the lowest perfect number - because that was all the Creator needed.  Numerologists point to the fact that the moon revolves around the earth in 28 days (just a coincidence, of course).  Yet, the typical workweek has 6 days, then we rest and repeat the cycle all over again. Unless you are like so many others, retired like me who now has time to ponder perfect numbers that for all intents and purposes mean little or nothing.  Or, do they? At least now you know what a perfect number is.  Good, because in our normal everyday world, that is about as good as we can get to anything that is perfect. Naturally, we don't just want to settle with that. 

Now, back to the real world. What about a perfect marriage?  Not in the real world, a skeptic might say.

Let's see .. if no one admits to be perfect, any pairing between two imperfect people will often bring about imperfect marriages, right?  But how about this? Shouldn't two half perfect people who marry each other be the proverbial perfect whole? Well, the problem is finding the two "right"  perfect halves to meet. In a small city of 150,000 people, the probability is low; out of almost 8 billion people from around the world the two halves ever meeting can be infinitesimally low in probability. However, this has not been a cause for discouragement because there are those who claim to have found their soul mates - thus scaling the height of positive thinking. Or, have they?

One estimate - I don't know how, but we leave it to the statisticians - there are 115,000 weddings everyday around the world. In the U.S. alone 2.1 million get married each year. Let us not spoil it by asking, "how many get divorced each year". Or, how many of the 2.1 million are for the second or third time; or, how many are trying to get in the Guinness Book of World Records for most number of  trips to the altar or justice of the peace.  

A perfect marriage depends on who is defining it. Someone claimed a mathematical definition: The strength and bliss of every marriage between two people is inversely proportional to the number of years the couple have been together.   Put another way, the longer that couples have been married the less likely  a marital Nirvana can occur.  Now, that is where the depth of negative thinking has sunk.  But no, we ought not agree with that. There were and still are marriages, though not exactly made in heaven, that sparkle like starlight in the night sky. 

What about a perfect life? I say that a perfect life is the sum of all the overwhelming number of perfect days over imperfect ones. We have to admit that we go through life made up of good days and not so good ones. The idea being that our definition of what is perfect or imperfect is wholly our own. Not by anyone defining it for us. What is humanly possible, short of achieving Nirvana (whatever that means, although I've mentioned it twice now in this musing) is the potential for our ability to amass an overwhelming number of good days over not-so-good ones.  

It was not a good day over two years ago when my wife was diagnosed with Parkinson's. Before that we've had innumerable good days that far exceeded the not so good days then. If we begin another count after the diagnosis, I will have to say that good days still continue to outnumber the not so good ones. And, this is important because no matter how small good things occur for as long as there are an overwhelming number of them over the not-so-good ones, the count is  valid and it is a beautiful thing to behold. How so?

Each morning I wake up and get out of bed. It counts as a good day. The aroma of a freshly brewed coffee and listening to soft morning music as I crack an egg over a skillet, or hear the crackling of bacon, or washing blueberries over a strainer, or preparing slices of papaya, comprise  tiny perfect moments. Moments later when I nudge my wife and she is ready to get up on her own and do her morning routine before coming out to the breakfast table count as the morning's perfect blessings while syrup over French toast and whatever the fruit of the day is  make up the preamble for a good day. For over two years now I make it a point to do this routine if only to get her day to start right; and mine too.

When I make the bed like she used to do thousands of times during her "able days" that is a perfect moment. When breakfast is finished I'd put one lubricating drop into each of her eyes that helps prevent dry eyes. Compression socks for both legs follow but I make it a ritual to powder her feet and massage both legs before putting the socks on. Morning rituals that they are, each counts as a good moment both for her and me.  These are simple, uncomplicated moments. We do these things because that's how days are supposed to be filled with - lots of simple but good moments.

It is a perfect moment that even with Parkinson's my wife still takes care of making sure her medications are well laid out for each day, including the ones that I have to take myself. It is a perfect day when the printer works so she can print out every financial record. It is a good moment that she still balances our checkbook and make sure all the charges and bills are in perfect order.

If we can manage to view life this way  and keep in mind the idea of perfect numbers (above) - the sum of their positive integer-divisors - we realize that good days are not rare but quite numerous if we take the time to notice.

Today snow had fallen over Texas. This event and the freezing temperatures are rare indeed. It is a good day because we have water and heat and are comfortable indoors.  Together with the multitude of people yesterday,  I was one among them at the grocery store to prepare because to go out and drive today would be one foolish bad day. It was a good day then and even better today to be preparing corned beef for soup and having something to grill indoors. Little things like these will make the tally sheet lopsidedly in favor of good over bad things.  Come to think of it, there is not a bad thing so far.  Did I just answer the question, "Is There Such A Thing as Perfect?"

Each of the trillions of perfect individual snowflakes made our backyard a rare scene of winter wonderland.

The front of our house carpeted with perfect snow.

This mourning dove is having a perfect moment at the bird feeder in our backyard.

So did this cardinal, one of many morning visitors to make one freezing morning to be made up of many perfect moments for these creatures.

So, you see it does not require a lot to make our day to be filled with simple, perfect moments like these.