Hi Everyone,
Perfect. Google’s English dictionary provided by Oxford Languages defines the first instance of the adjective ‘perfect’ as ‘having all the required or desirable elements, qualities, characteristics; as good as it is possible to be’. Well, that’s a tricky one for me as I have always been told that perfection is out of reach, or that there is always imperfection in perfection (and vice versa), along with sayings like ‘it is progress not perfection’, meaning of course that I have missed the mark but go with the flow anyway, etc.
I am not sure that this just comes with age, but the older I become the more I am aware of perfection in its dictionary definition of ‘as good as it is possible to be’. For example, yesterday as I looked at a deep red velvet of Virginia creeper spill over the garden shed and onto the lawn, I knew that that rich colour and wavy alignment could not be any more perfect for a late, crisp September, almost October, day. Or the spires of St Aldate’s Church and Tom Tower viewed today from the rooftop of Westgate shopping mall, here in Oxford. Positioned neatly under an immaculate blue sky and one flawlessly formed single cumulus cloud, they could not have been any more perfect, meaning that instant was ‘as good as it is possible to be’.
Anyone who has lived in or visited Oxford for any amount of time is aware of the famous quote by Matthew Arnold. He wrote, ’that sweet city with her dreaming spires/ She needs not June for beauty’s heightening.’ In that moment when I stopped to take a breath, a second look at those spires from the Westgate rooftop, I did want to freeze-frame the beauty, the perfection, and yes I felt Matthew Arnold had got it right. But I also understood that inherent in perfection is beauty, a singular definition as solely defined by each and every one of us.
On many occasions we come together and define a particular beauty as awe inspiring, as perfect. Think of the musical composition Ode to Joy, the literary achievement War and Peace or the painting Mona Lisa, but many, many times it is a singular event: the beauty of my child’s smile, the sunlight across my kitchen table, or yes the creeper in my back garden. But where I must thank Master Arnold is the recognition that, inherent for me, in perfection lies beauty, a heart-stopping, second-look-taking, deep-breathing-in beauty.
So here’s wishing you a perfect (as good as it is possible to be) October with a bountiful number of leaves falling or budding and turning an emerald green, depending on your hemisphere, keeping in mind that Perfect arithmetic of Beauty that is only yours to define.
Love,
Marlene
Photo by MidJourney