2009.01.22 19:00 - Perfection is the tempting thing

 

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The guardian at this meeting was Sylectra Darwin. 

 

Sylectra Darwin: Pila!
Pila Mulligan: hi
Sylectra Darwin: How are you?
Pila Mulligan: I'm fine, my avi seems a little erratic though, how are you?
Pila Mulligan: with this slow connection the avi just does not respond weel to the keyboard
Sylectra Darwin: That's been happening to me as well.
Sylectra Darwin: I was just in a store for clothes, and it took forever to see what was hanging on the walls.
Sylectra Darwin: Are we at all spiritually sluggish as well?
Pila Mulligan: is this your PaB Guardian session?
Sylectra Darwin: yes.
Pila Mulligan: my spirit is not sluggish now :)
Pila Mulligan: I am in high spirits with the new President
Sylectra Darwin: hehe, me too!
Pila Mulligan: SL sure is laggy though
Sylectra Darwin: I hope that the feeling of a new era plays out well for everyone.
Pila Mulligan: with most new preisidents the first question is how long will the honeymoon last
Pila Mulligan: Obama has tons of goodwill around him now
Sylectra Darwin: so I am struggling to return to a normal routine, and wondering if that is a significant distinction at all.
Sylectra Darwin: smiles
Pila Mulligan: I suspect it is -- the new preisdent you mean?
Pila Mulligan: what do you and I and Obama and Biden and Bush have in commn? (not a trick question)
Pila Mulligan: hi steve
stevenaia Michinaga: HI

Sylectra Darwin: Hi Stevie, please join us.

Sylectra Darwin: no, Pila, my own routine is settling in now that the holidays are over.

Sylectra Darwin: So now I must deal with the question, what does my day look like? And how is my life meaningful?

Pila Mulligan: what we have in common is that we all just started living in new residences

Sylectra Darwin: Oh really?

Sylectra Darwin: You are new to Hawaii?

Pila Mulligan: but the meanginfulness of the day and life is a question for all times :)

stevenaia Michinaga: and I was thinking something clever like...hope

Pila Mulligan: no, but I just moved into a new house

Pila Mulligan: :) hope is cool

Sylectra Darwin: what is new about your new house, Pila?

Pila Mulligan: everything

Pila Mulligan: hopefully it will pass its final building inspection next week

Sylectra Darwin: Oh I hope so too! i think you mentioned something about this a couple weeks ago.

Sylectra Darwin: A new home...I am in the place of really considering,....what is home for me?

stevenaia Michinaga: so you will live alone Pila?

Pila Mulligan: home is a very meaningful and far reahcing idea

Pila Mulligan: yes, i live alone, but I will have room for guests or even tenants

stevenaia Michinaga: home is simply wherever you are if you accept that

Pila Mulligan: yes, home is where you are :)

stevenaia Michinaga: if you choose to have it be so

stevenaia Michinaga: or accept

Sylectra Darwin: I think of Dorothy and her ruby slippers, and the power of suggestion to the self.

Sylectra Darwin: There is no place like home, no place like home, no place like home.

Sylectra Darwin: Maybe if we say it enough we will feel like we are home.

stevenaia Michinaga: waves at Nos

Sylectra Darwin: Hey Nos! Good to see you!

Nostrum Forder: hi

Pila Mulligan: however I've been told that in Aryuvedic medicine they recognize personality types, and one of those is the nesting personaility -- that is very much me

Sylectra Darwin: I am mooning about routines and home.

Sylectra Darwin: i would like to have more of that in my personality.

Nostrum Forder: I just figured I'd stop in and say that everything is pointless, on my way to getting another drink.

Nostrum Forder grins.

Sylectra Darwin: I think I am a flitter. An adventurer.

Sylectra Darwin: hehe

Sylectra Darwin: you landed on the conversation perfectly, Nos.

Pila Mulligan: :)

Nostrum Forder: I'm the quiet unassuming stay-at-home type.

Sylectra Darwin: So Pila, how do you feel that you are home?

stevenaia Michinaga: if your past 6 months are an example, I would say for now, yes

Sylectra Darwin: grins

Sylectra Darwin could use a little more constancy for a bit.

stevenaia Michinaga: but a journey is tranformative too

Sylectra Darwin: Wise PaBers like yourself have said before that you don't have to go anywhere to have a transformation.

Pila Mulligan: the familiarity of the place, probably, Sylectra

Sylectra Darwin: Perhaps a variation on that is also true - you are home no matter where you go.

Pila Mulligan: wow, SL lag put those sentences in reverse order

Pila Mulligan: my poor avi just keeps on typing long after I've stopped :)

Nostrum Forder: The way is the goal

Nostrum Forder: It isn't important to arrive.

Nostrum Forder: It is far more important to depart.

Sylectra Darwin: I know it but I don't yet feel it. Perhaps that is what I must learn next.

stevenaia Michinaga: awww, the impatience of youth

Sylectra Darwin: haha, thank you Steven.

Sylectra Darwin: Any interesting reflections or observations from this week that you'd like to share?

stevenaia Michinaga: I just did

Sylectra Darwin: lol

Sylectra Darwin: a truth worth savoring.

Pila Mulligan: my guess is that we usually improve the quality of our days -- by meaningfulness or whatever standard -- in small steps

Nostrum Forder: Never pet a burning dog.

Sylectra Darwin: One thing I have been savoring is that we are all imperfect, and thankfully so.

Nostrum Forder: It just hurts, and the dog doesn't appreciate it.

Sylectra Darwin: haha, Nos!

Sylectra Darwin: Never burn a petted dog.

Sylectra Darwin: The more philosophical thought I devote to my daily existence the more I love my red jersey sheets.

Sylectra Darwin: My friend Valerie says she is perfectly imperfect, and I think that is wonderful.

Sylectra Darwin: That is what it means to be human.

Sylectra Darwin: This week I love the imperfections that I am made up of.

Pila Mulligan: :)

Nostrum Forder: I hate your imperfections. They remind me of mine.

Nostrum Forder: I'm learning my limits as a parent.

Sylectra Darwin: They can't be that similar, can they?

Nostrum Forder: and I'm learning how to beat Spore on my iPhone.

Sylectra Darwin: rock on.

Sylectra Darwin: This Spore, it sounds like a worthy adversary for my PC.

Nostrum Forder: Syl is falling asleep on us.

Nostrum Forder: I should tickle her.

Pila Mulligan: However, Confucius had a disciple named Yen Hui, and Confucius said, "Yen Hui is surely one who will find success, for having made a mistake he never fails to recognize it, and having recognized it he never makes the same mistake again."

stevenaia Michinaga: just poke her

Nostrum Forder: Pila, that sounds like something WC Fields said, or maybe it was Mae West.

Sylectra Darwin: I like that but don't you think Yen Hui might have too much pride in that case? Never to make the same mistake again?

Nostrum Forder: "When choosing the lesser of two evils, I usually pick the one I haven't tried before."

Sylectra Darwin: the road less traveled....leads to new adventures which teach me new things.

Pila Mulligan: (that Confucius quote was related to what Valerie said)

Nostrum Forder: ah

Sylectra Darwin: I want to be made new in each moment of time, throughout my life.

Nostrum Forder: Not me. I want to be the same old Nossie.

Pila Mulligan: having pride and avoiding mistakes may not be connected

Sylectra Darwin: How so, Pila?

Nostrum Forder: Confucious didn't say Yen made no mistakes.

Nostrum Forder: He simply said Yen didn't repeat them.

Pila Mulligan: imperfection is a genuine part of life, but not a cover for repeating errors

Nostrum Forder: On the other hand, I repeat mistakes all the time.

Nostrum Forder: Big mistake.

Nostrum Forder: For example, I continue to try to use SL from a laptop over wifi.

Pila Mulligan: I eat too much ice cream frequently :)

Sylectra Darwin: You guys make a lot of sense. Yes, being perfectly imperfect can sometimes be a temptation to keep messing up when you know how to get it right.

stevenaia Michinaga: who does that?

stevenaia Michinaga: isn't perfection the tempting thing

Sylectra Darwin: I guess - and this question comes from living with teenagers for the first time since becoming an adult - you also have to care about getting it right, too. Or not. You have to decide, one way or another, if the thing merits your full attention.

Pila Mulligan: like Heaven?

Sylectra Darwin: Steven, explain further?

Sylectra Darwin: Pila, how interesting.

Pila Mulligan: <- Steve, re perfection being the tempting thing

stevenaia Michinaga: "being perfectly imperfect can sometimes be a temptation to keep messing up when you know how to get it right."

stevenaia Michinaga: I don't agree with this

Sylectra Darwin: why not?

stevenaia Michinaga: I believe we try to improve, whatever that is, fewer imperfections

Pila Mulligan: we should try or we do?

stevenaia Michinaga: I think repair of imperfection is easier than repeating imperfection

Pila Mulligan: :)

Pila Mulligan: nice

Pila Mulligan: wish I could do it with ice cream :)

Sylectra Darwin: hmm, nice way of thinking about it.

stevenaia Michinaga: you will make that coherent in your edit , Sylectra

Sylectra Darwin: Haha, Pila, you make me hungry for dessert.

Sylectra Darwin: Steven, you have a teenage son. When you think of him do you conclude that he is in the process of repairing his imperfections?

stevenaia Michinaga: Ice cream is not imperfect

stevenaia Michinaga: yes, one misdeed at a time

Sylectra Darwin: meaning it is perfect?

Pila Mulligan: sorry :)

Pila Mulligan: some ice cream is very nearly perfect :0

Sylectra Darwin: smiles

stevenaia Michinaga: hmmm is impercetion the opposite of perfection?

stevenaia Michinaga: imperfection, rather

Pila Mulligan: imperception may be very close

Sylectra Darwin: should be but I suspect Taoist Steve is about to catch me up in his flawless logic.

Sylectra Darwin: hehe

stevenaia Michinaga: seems that perfection could be a singulatiry and everything else is imperfect, something to take a bite out of one nibble at a time

stevenaia Michinaga: so it's a "cleaning up" process

Pila Mulligan: perception is probably what we need to perfect

Sylectra Darwin: you are both making good gentle sense.

Sylectra Darwin: Pila, esplain about the perception trick?

Pila Mulligan: or a substantial part of what we need to perfect

Pila Mulligan: the fist part of what C said about Yen Hui -- never fails to recognize

Sylectra Darwin: nods

stevenaia Michinaga: on that nod... I'm off

stevenaia Michinaga: see you soon

Sylectra Darwin: okies.

Sylectra Darwin: thank you both.

Sylectra Darwin: i am signing out as well.

Pila Mulligan: bye Steve

stevenaia Michinaga: have a good week, bye Pila

Pila Mulligan: bye Syl