Essay Excerpt & Reflection

“The Perfection of Imperfection”- Christopher Alexander
We have become used to an almost fanatical precision in the construction of buildings. Tile work, for instance, must be perfectly aligned, perfectly square, every tile perfectly cut, and the whole thing accurate in a grid to a tolerance of a sixteenth of an inch. But our tile work is dead and ugly, without soul.

In this Mexican house the tiles are roughly cut, the wall is not perfectly plumb, and the tiles don't even line up properly. Sometimes one tile is as much as half an inch behind the next one in the vertical plane.

And why? Is it because these Mexican craftsmen didn't know how to do precise work? I don't think so. I believe they simply knew what is important and what is not, and they took good care to pay attention only to what is important: to the color, the design, the feeling of one tile and its relationship to the next- the important things that create the harmony and feeling of the wall. The plumb and the alignment can be quite rough without making any difference, so they didn't bother spending too much effort on these things.

They spent their effort in the way that made the most difference. And so they produced this wonderful quality, this harmony... simply because that is what they paid attention to, and what they tried to produce...

In our time many of us have been taught to strive for an insane perfection that means nothing. To get wholeness, you must try instead to strive for this kind of perfection, where things that don't matter are left rough and unimportant, and the things that really matter are given deep attention. This is a perfection that seems imperfect. But it is a far deeper thing.

***

Imperfections in society tend to be scrutinized so harshly; in magazines, tabloid reporters are constantly pinpointing the most normal of flaws in celebrities, tearing apart the morale of a politician based on hasty rumours spread viciously through the media circuit. In our own day-to-day lives, it is easy to see that most people will focus their attention on the imperfections in others and that people are criticized for their flaws more than they are praised for their strengths.

Christopher Alexander, in writing The Perfection of Imperfection illustrates the obsession with perfection that so many people seem to have. This obsession isn't just about perfection in themselves, or even in their work, but can often be an obsession with total perfection in every aspect of their lives. Christopher Alexander has an interesting interpretation on this fixation in reaching complete 'perfection.' In his eyes, our preoccupation with fixing everything until it can't be improved is completely fruitless. We are wasting our time trying to perfect things that do not need to be perfected, and not giving our attention to the things that really merit it.

We also tend to make the assumption that those who are willing to allow imperfections into their lives are incapable of hard work or direction, and are simply making the lazy decision to not fix things. This is far from the truth; those who do not strive towards this absurd all encompassing perfection do show direction and self discipline, but in a more constructive way than the rest do. They put time into what matters to them: this time could be invested into family members, or friends. It could be working to fix their community involvement or improving their ethics at their job, but whatever the context, these people are able to see beyond the petty perfection of small, unimportant details and devote their attention to more important things.

I believe Achilles demonstrates this skill in a strange way; it would be simple for him to concentrate solely on trying to perfect himself and find the 'cure' that would make him totally immortal. Instead, Achilles pledges his attention and time fighting in the Trojan War, going against his mother's wishes to remain at home, where he will be able to hide from the consequences of his imperfection. This is a far more noble cause that involves the survival and well being of an entire country, as opposed to bringing himself to a state of total perfection, which would be done only with a selfish motivation...