Skip to main content

THE ILLUSION OF PERFECTION (Ismaila Nassim)



Perfection, as we broadly understand it, is the highest degree of excellence, having no faults being accurately and inexcusably excellent. It means that whatever it is in question that is 'perfect' is of a distinctive nature/quality that makes it stand out from other things and hence perfect compared to any other, but what then shall we say when the perfect thing in question stands without a comparative to be compared with or against, is it then having all sense of excellence being the only one? How then does it stand to be compared by itself and then emerge 'perfect'?. Perfection therefore, is the standard by which everyone and everything is compared. Who or what then makes this 'standard'? By what means or law has this standard of comparison been structured? And what determines a person's approval of being 'perfect' by breaking the 'perfection threshold'?.We hear and make statements such as: 'it's a perfect day', 'they have the perfect relationship', 'she is the perfect girl for me' and so on, how then have we determined what is and what isn't perfect?. humans are emotional beings, we are driven by emotions and are ruled by emotions, we carryout our everyday activities based on the emotional dispositions we have at certain periods throught the day, our level of output is determined by the different emotional states we are disposed to as the day flows by, different physiological states also affect emotions, say hunger for example, a physiological state, causes an individual to be slow and weak, not mentally focused and of course not in the 'mood' for any vigorous activity, such a person when approached will give off the feeling of not wanting to associate with anything or anyone until they have satisfied the physiological demand. By nature's design, we draw more to experiences that give us an emotional upliftment making us want to go back time after time for more of the 'emotional high'. This is the foundation on which addictions and self defeating behaviors are built upon, but my aim is not to expose the root of addictions and self defeating behaviors, but to understand the premise of perfection.

Two intimate lovers Jerry and Samantha go for an evening out, they park the car and decide to walk around abit, they end up in the commercial area of the city, Samantha urges her man into a shop where cakes and ice creams are the menu, cakes a girl would ever desire are available, he urges her to take her pick and she goes ahead, with enthusiasm and almost child like excitement, they end up having chocolate cake and strawberry icecream with a scoop of coconut, the girl stares at her man dreamily with a glow in her eyes as they sit and talk, she observes his every move, lips, eyes, hand gesticulation and of course he's clean cut shave. The world seems to stop as they remain in there gisting, they leave, and out on the streets he notices a lovely gemstone necklace through the window of a jewellery store, he goes in and buys it for her, she loves it, tears in her eyes, she feels something in her stomach, an empty almost floating like feeling she hugs him and almost doesn't let go. He takes her home, at her front door, the night seems to have come to an abrupt end, they stand for what seems like ages in their embrace. Then they finally kiss each other goodnight , just before he leaves he produces a box of chocolates from the back seat of the car and gives it to her with a big 'I LOVE YOU' teddy, her excitement knows no bounds. She goes in and can't wait to tell her friends, Sally and Judy, about it. Sally is almost excited if not for the slight jealousy she feels, "I think it's all an act" she says, Judy who is as excited as her friend believes he is the 'perfect' example of a man who loves his girl "he's a perfect gentleman" she says. Samantha is overwhelmed with excitement from the positive reinforcement she has been receiving from her lover all evening, her friend Judy who shares the same emotional state, holds the view that Jerry is the 'perfect gentleman', this is as a result of the emotional high that her friend came home with and she got rubbed off it also, Sally on the other hand received the same emotional high, but had a nagetive emotion attached so she didn't feel that level of high her friends felt, and for this purpose Sally won't share the same view of Jerry her friends have, to her Jerry is a scam and is in no way near breaking the threshold of perfection.

The attachment of positive emotions with good, and negative with bad can not be over emphasised, it is an innate behaviour embedded in all organisms. Is perfection therefore a situation arising from reinforcements received from emotional states and wellbeing, not being a standard of comparism but an emotional disposition that varies from individual to individual.What seems to be perfection for one falls short of that to another, what appears to be present in a thing is yet absent. It therefore is dependent on how each one perceives a thing to be from what another perceives the same thing to be, a thing of individual perceptions and not a standard of division meant to be reached and or crossed by any one.
Location: Rayfield Jos, Nigeria

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Positive Vibes Only by Ismaila A. Nassim

This is a term we have seen many times and used ourselves. It denotes that the person only wants positivity around them, hence, anything that will cause negativity should be shunned, avoided, or at best not given attention too, this is a good thing emotionally, because it shows that the person who wants 'positive vibes only' has reached a level of self awareness emotionally, and can judge between positive (good) and negative (bad) vibes (energy) and hitherto, wants to work a way of pulling positivity and pushing negativity away, it will not come as a surprise to know that the person wanting 'positive vibes only' around them, has had too much of negative vibes around them and hence in them, and have reached an awareness of this negativity around and within that they want it done away with and the only way they see fit to do or achieve this is by having positivity around them at all times, because the external stimuli of an individual's environment determines what th...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Depression Of The 21st by Ismaila A. Nassim

"The world is changing, I feel it in the water, I feel it in the earth, I smell it in the air, much that once was is lost, for non now live who remember it" _ Lord Of The Rings- the fellowship of the rings - 2001. Emphasis can not be over stated on the awareness of the growing rate of depression in this century, depression here being ‘a mental state characterized by a pessimistic sense of inadequacy and a despondent lack of activity’ a depressed person is plagued by ‘sad feelings of gloom and inadequacy’. But why is there an increase in this abnormal mental state? Is it the advancement in data collection that has been acquired over the centuries that has brought this into light being that it’s not an increase but the same statistics only now known because the means of data collection and collation has been upgraded or advanced? Or perhaps it is indeed a growing enigma that needs to be studied and understood from its root cause? And if so what is the root cause for the rise i...
1 comment
Read more

The Original Origin by Ismaila A. Nassim

The origin of a thing, refers largely to “the place where something or the thing in question begins, where it springs into being”, the first stage or part of a sequence of events. It means from that point onwards the thing begins to exist, it is therefore referred to as the original, being the authentic product of the item or thing, for an example: If the audio recording of a music is made, the music has been at that point documented and hence created and brought into existence, this is the original sound. This original has a limitation however, of duplicity, because to be an original means to stand alone, hence the need for duplicates.  The ‘fault in the stars’ of a duplicate however is, it falls short of the original, being itself a copy of the original. A duplicate of a thing is not the original thing, the purpose of a duplicate is for it to seem like the original, the constant striving to achieve making a duplicate seem like the original is the main reason why the duplicate ...
Post a Comment
Read more