【Philosopher Café】Perfection and Defect
Date/Time：2011/06/18
Place：Degui Academy, 10th floor Library
Facilitator：Ku Chung-Yu/ Assistant Professor of Life and Values School, DDU
【Reporter/Ye Shuying,Zheng Xinli】How many people struggle to work and liveday by dayin order to achieve the expectations of others or to fulfill their personal visions of perfection? How much effort and energy do we spendinhidingour flaws and imperfectionssimply because we feel embarrassed?
The topic of the talk in the Philosopher’s Café on 6/18 was “Perfection and defects.”Thirty-ninefriends gatheredtogether on the 10th floor of the Degui Academy to enjoy a greatphilosophical and spiritual feastand to bring inspiration totheir lives. Before we began our discussion, Professor Ku chose for us astory from the book "Can You Eat Your Cat?"to practice introspectionon this ethicalissue.The teacher remindedus not to rely on habitual reflex when responding to this question.This story can be a start for us to further scrutinize our habitual patterns and value judgments, and to try to break our old habits so as to make decisions.
The teacher also related the topic to otherphilosophicalissues in order to lead participants to ponder about the question "Is there such a thing in the world that is absolutely perfect?What is beauty? Is perfection synonym for beauty or can defects bebeautifultoo?" Before getting into the topic, the teacher invited us to challenge ourselves and to open ourselves to various possibilities.
In the course of this activity,the teacher keptproposingissues that are relevantto today's topic that guidedus to face,inspect and thinkabout the following questions.First of all, "Does any added elementmake any thing perfect?Or does something becomeperfectwith fewer elements? Does any addedelementmake itdefective?Or does it become defective with the deletion of some elements?" Participants respondedwith their different ideas: one interpreted it withthe analogy of a picture. In general, western oil paintingsare considered beautifulwhen the entire canvas is filled,whereastraditional Chinese paintings are considered beautifulwhen a certain amount of void is present at the appropriate spots. Beauty is a subjective perception and people define beauty differently indifferenttimesand in different spaces,and with different cultural backgrounds.
Secondly, does the person or the thing that you care about most need to be perfect? The majority of the participants pursueperfection in their work.Someone shared hisexperience that in the process of pursuing perfection inwork, he foundthe result is death caused by overwork in the end. Someone asserted that perfectiondoesnot lie in the accomplishment of the goal;instead itis developed in the process of the course. Defects keep uspursuingsomething better and the process of removing defectsone by one is itself a form of perfection.Other issues were raisedsuch as:"Is it a necessity or a desireto pursue perfection? Areperfection and defectsrelative or absolute? Perfection and defectsoften take turnsappearing in this impermanent world. . The important questionis, whetherthere exists an absolute perfection or defect?"
One participant shared that being single brings her the greatest solitude, but at the same time,the largest freedom tofly freely in the sky.We perceivethingsdifferently when wewear pink glassesor grey glasses.The teacher took "The Missing Piece" written byShel Silverstein as anexample to remind usto contemplate on the following question:Can the “perfection”we seek become an obstacle or a defect?The protagonist of the story is a circlewith a part missingwho keeps looking for the missing part. Aftershe found the part that completed her, sherealized that she couldn't stop at any time to enjoy the sceneryas she did before. It seemed that she reached the perfection only to find herselflosingmuchmore in the end.
The teacher's questionsguided us to ponderon how we identify and insist onperfection in our daily lives. Theyalso made us reflect on the roleswhich perfection and defects play in our lives. Perhapsimperfection was also a different kind of perfectionwhich brings us joyand helps us shun away from some crises.
In the end,the teacher askedus more questions:"Is perfection reachable?Is there a way to achieve perfection?Do we achieve it throughchanging themselves or others?Or can we reach perfection by adjustingour perception?"It helps us to reconsider things in our lives if we can renew our understanding and perception of “being perfect” and “being defective” with the above questions.
As we approached the end of thisdialogue,the teacher invited those participantswho hadn’thad the opportunityto voicetheiropinions to talkbriefly in response to the topic. One participant employedtwo advertisements to interprettoday's topic. The first one is the slogan of a car dealership “The way Lexus pursues perfection is nearly over-critical.The second one goes “Stop grading me!”. He thought it is normal that there are defects in life. As long as one changesone’sviews, onecantolerate andaccept one’s defectsin life. We often forget to be flexible. As a result, we crash into wallsagain and againin our lives. We should reflect on ourselves periodicallywhether we treat ourselves too harshly or not. Bear in mind thatsometimes even thesereflections are too harsh. The pursuit of perfection is a process of reducing mistakes afteraccepting them first.
Another participant tried to interpret perfection and defects in a more matureand well-roundedperspective. Everyone appreciatesmerits; however,it requiresa great wisdom to appreciate shortcomingstoo. We experienced imperfection during the course of learning. The fact that we learned to differentiate between perfection and defects through other people’s life storiesleads to a greater possibility of creating beautiful elements in the world.
These heart-warmingwordsare the beautiful pearl that marksa perfect ending for this activity today.