Practical, therapeutic, theological thought

by Penrod

Motto: “The real game is the game you’re in.”

Someone recently said: “the perfect is the enemy of the good.” Not bad. I’ve heard that said before. Easy to see the truth in it. I can hold out for something “perfect” and end up getting nothing. I’ve done it; I’ve missed the boat. So, let’s relax, drop our standards. You can’t be perfect anyway—unless, unless one clarifies “perfect.” Perhaps we will see that perfect is not the enemy of the good.

I’ve pointed out the root meaning of perfect a number of times previously but I know not to whom. Forgive me if you have heard or read this before. Perfect comes from the Latin (per meaning through and facere, to do or to make). The root meaning is doing something through or completing it. If you think about it a bit, you realize the fundamental shift this brings to the meaning of perfect and, at the very least, the enhancement of our understanding of it. Perfect is no longer merely a rating scale of one to ten with ten being perfect, nor, in the same vein, is it comparative. At its root, perfect is personal experience and a source of satisfaction.

For example, God said he saw what he made was good. (How should we refer to God? He? She? He and She?) The story I have in mind is familiar to many. The translations I’ve read all refer to God both as God (YaHWeH) and “He.” Clearly a person in any event. It has been pointed out to me that the Hebrew word usually translated “good” is more accurately translated that God saw that it was done, that it was complete.

God completed one phase of creation each day for six days giving occasion for six major moments of satisfaction. God’s completions were terrific, as we all know and have experienced in this grand, incredible universe and in our own mysterious lives and our consciousness. Note that each work of creation was not the best among rivals nor was there an ideal that God strove for and achieved. How could that be? The story contemplates nothing before or greater than God. God did not strive for a ten. It was an individual personal action that God completed and he was satisfied. Ten-out-of-ten type considerations being irrelevant.

It is worth noting that satisfaction [from satis meaning enough and facere to do or to make] is a complete, whole experience. The word satisfactory is often used to mean average. In fact, satisfaction cannot be improved upon. It is “enough.” It can be embellished as in “more than satisfied” or, alternatively, it can and is placed down the list from superb. In fact though, satisfaction is complete and, thankfully, a very common experience, very being an embellishment of common. The common is the highest good. But let’s not go into that now.

“So what?” So what?! It’s a big deal. A person can get out of, escape from, the comparison game once he or she becomes clear about it. “The real game is the game you are in,” as I have been insisting for years. There is nothing like the World Series, but it is only one game a year. What’s that worth for someone who wants to play? There is no ideal game that is the only real one worth talking about or enjoying. Are you kidding? It’s that pick-up basketball game at the People’s Center that includes dads and sons. It’s the Falls Broncos beating the Hibbing Bluejackets, girls playing hockey, someone playing the trombone in the junior high orchestra, or kids playing touch football in the end zone of a small college at half time, and it is every single game in the world that’s fun. Extending the metaphor, it’s Pietisten.

Let’s keep playing.