I’ve been brewing an essay on the illness that is perfectionism for a long time now. It’s not quite cooked yet.
But this morning, after a terrible loss in our community, the thought came out like this:
Be a beautiful wreck. Be a cracked vessel. Be a magnificent mess, or just an ordinary one. Ask for help. You can be weak, wrong, sorry. You can begin again. Perfectionism is a terminal but curable disease. Fight back by surrendering.
My friend Erik Contzius of Make Tech Better was inspired to create the image above out of it. Thanks, Erik!
(Coming soon on Perfect Whole: more about editing a manuscript than you ever wanted to know.)
Perfect Whole 
Good advice for dealing with life, in general — not just perfectionism. Thanks for the reminder. Sorry you’ve had a tragedy in your community.
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Excellent! Thank you for the very important reminder.
Thanks for reading, Elaine! Good to hear from you. I hope all is well.
That is beautiful. People try too hard to be perfect. And the imperfections are so very interesting . .
Our imperfections aren’t just interesting. They’re what separate us from the minerals.
Reblogged this on 135journals and commented:
My friend Julie learned that an accomplished and talented student from her high school committed suicide at the University of Pennsylvania last weekend. I want to write more about this subject, but in the meantime, I love what she wrote, and what a talented friend made of her words. From her excellent blog, Perfect Whole.
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