Tuesday, June 20, 2006

"What a wicked game to play, to make me feel this way. What a wicked thing to do, to make me dream of you."

Chris Issak I'm not (sometimes I think that if I was, this would be so much easier), but I guess I'll have to make do.

People I meet usually think I'm very content with my lot in life, which, spatially speaking, is quite large, but actually very inadequate. They're not completely wrong, but they're not completely right either.

I would never, not in a million years, do things differently if I could, and even if I was handed a time machine, I don't think I'd (a) use it at all, or (b) even if I did, would actually CHANGE anything.

Human beings are not supposed to be perfect. Our imperfections are what make us human. Andrea Del Sarto (wrote Robert Browning) was called 'The Faultless Painter'. Leonardo, Michealangelo and all the other Renaissance greats were envious of his ability to draw to perfection. He could 'paint' photographs. But he admitted, quite openly, that the only reason his work would not live on and that of the others would was because his was too cold, too accurate, too mechanical, too perfect. The artisit's responsiblity, Ruskin says, is to convey not only the truth to the viewer, but also his/her (the artist's) own feelings, emotions and passion. The work of art must necessarily embody something of the artist him/herself, otherwise it is mere imitation.

Perfection is not a human atribute. It was never meant to be, nor is it supposed to be. The only perfect human is a dead one, because perfection implies absolution. The only absolute in this life is death, and that is the only certainty.

If we were drawn to the perfect, we wouldn't be human. And if we were satisfied by the perfect (in this world), then God have mercy on our souls.

That is why.

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