*IMPERFECT/*IMPERFECTION - SIN, EVOLVE
Antonyms: PERFECT
The mystic pierces the veil of imperfection and beholds Creation with the Creator's eye. (Mysticism, p314)
"The Missing Piece" by Shel Silverstein is about a circle that when it found its missing piece began to roll too fast to notice the flowers or talk. When it realized that, it stopped, left its founf piece and rolled slowly away. Ironically, we are more whole when we are missing something. THE MAN WHO HAS EVERYTHING IS IN SOME WAYS A POOR MAN BECAUSE HE WILL NEVER KNOW WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO YEARN, TO HOPE, TO NOURISH HIS SOUL WITH THE DREAM OF SOMETHING BETTER. There is a wholeness about the person who has come to terms with his limitations, who has been brave enough to let go of his unrealistic dreams and not feel like a failure for doing so. Life is like a baseball season, where even the best team loses one-third of its games and even the worst team has its days of brilliance. When we accept that imperfection is part of being human, and appreciating it, we will have achieved a wholeness that others can only aspire to. God wants us not to "be perfect," but to "be whole." And at the end, if we are brave enough to love, strong enough to forgive, generous enough to rejoice in another's happiness, and wise enough to know there is enough love to go around for us all, then we can achieve a fulfillment that no other living creature will ever know. We can re-enter Paradise. (You Don't Have to Be Perfect by Kushner, 5/97 Reader's Digest) - also see WHOLE.
If wonder if: God too is imperfect, since evil does exist, but because evil exists that makes God whole which is a higher goodness and ultimate in goodness. (Randy, 4/97 after contemplating the above)
The person who knows his flaws all to well is open to God's love and God's presence because he realizes he is not God. "Imperfection is the wound that lets God in." Shame, "the wound that lets God in" has broken through the armor of perfectionist pretense and opened their souls to His presence. (How Good, p54-5)
But if we leave our children with a sense of our imperfect humanity and an unfinished agenda, we leave them a space in which they can grow and flourish rather than casting a shadow over them and stunting their growth. (How Good, p84)
Thomas Moore in "Soul Mates" says: "Our task as adults then might be to search for whatever it takes to forgive our parents for being imperfect. In a sense, the Bible is a chronicle of good people being bad parents. We need to liberate ourselves from the myth that God will love us only if we are perfect. (How Good, p94-5)