She came to the branch where I work and anxiously looked around. She was clearly worried. I was helping a customer as she paved the walk way back and forth with impatience. She was a beautiful young lady with blond hair and blue eyes. But her impatience took away a little from her beauty. As I finished my transaction with my customer she approached me and screamed her heart out at me which took me for a second by surprise, but I immediately pretended that nothing had happened. I smiled to her, shook her hand and asked her slowly to have a seat so I could help her. Her words as she was yelling with difficulty were “My Debit card is not working, I need money”. She struggled so much in uttering those words because that young lady was deaf. I talked to the customer slowly so she could read my lips and assured her that I’ll be taking care of her. We used a pen and a paper and she was happy to learn that her debit card is back to normal.
The minute I made my final payment on my very first car loan, I started driving it around feeling good about owning it. I stopped at a traffic light and I suddenly heard some kind of screeching. I recognized that sound, it felt that someone took a key and just scratched the paint off of it. I was pissed and as I rolled down the window to investigate, I heard a voice saying "I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry". The tone of the voice expressed fear and regret. It was the voice of someone who must have been physically and mentally abused. I immediately said “don’t worry about it, it’s nothing, really nothing” I wanted to get out to check on him and give him a hug had I not been in the middle of traffic. I added “Are you okay?” and he said “I’m alright sir; I didn’t mean to hit your car”. It broke my heart for he was a blind man, possibly in his twenties, walking with the help of a stick that he feels his way by.
That stick was what scratched the paint off of my perfect looking car and turned it into an imperfect one. I said to him “No need to apologize at all, we’re good”. I couldn’t care less for my vehicle. His closed eyes opened mine.
It’s so easy to drift away with the temptation of wanting to have the perfect life, the perfect apartment, the perfect car, the perfect lover and most of all, the perfect looks. But perfection is a state of mind. Perfection for some people is imperfection for others.
Life is all about sympathizing and knowing that what we worry about is nothing compared to what other people go through every day and every minute of the day. The less blessed ones are not there to just wake us up and tell us “Hey, you’re lucky, you have your health. What would you do if you were in my shoes? would you worry so much about the wrinkles on your face, the bone in your nose that you don't like, or the extra pounds you want to get rid of, or would you worry about not knowing what love or being loved is?” They’re there for us to reach out to and help, to feel their pain and offer understanding, love, and patience without feeling superior. To learn to want less and be content, yet want more to make a difference.
Bottom line is, we’re not going to take anything with us, we’re not going to maintain our looks. Looks fade, properties come and go. Living a good life is about appreciating what we have instead of taking it for granted. Living Perfection is about sharing what we have with the less fortunate ones.
Perfection is a smile you put on someone’s face
It’s the light you shed in someone’s darkness
Perfection by itself is a flaw, an obsession, and an addiction.
Perfection becomes perfect when we help, share, accept, and love. Who said it's for God only ....
