Perfect Imperfection
Let me get straight to the point (puns intended)
Justin’s most recent prompt was to write something based on the above image. It seems to be artificially generated, but certainly is reminiscent of hills or mountains, perhaps at sunset. I thought about what the image means to me, and it relates in perhaps an odd way. Read on…
I have written a few pieces about my career in the trades, about the knowledge and discipline that is required to build “per plans and specs”. The trades are not for sissies. Tradesmen think in angles, shapes and dimensions. XYZ coordinates are a way of life. I’m retired now, but I spent decades in this world, a world in which keyboards hold little sway, and Newton’s laws and Euclidian geometry are king (queen, if you prefer). Such science and math have become so ubiquitous that it is present in everything we do and think, often without conscious recognition. If I say “envision a room”… OK, I WILL say “envision a room”. Go ahead, I’ll wait… Ready yet? Got a room in your head? Now let me see if I can guess the characteristics of your room. It is rectangular, not irregular, probably not square, and almost certainly not round. How am I doing? It has vertical walls and square corners, and a ceiling height somewhere between eight and twelve feet. I can’t be sure I guessed right about your room, but the odds are in my favor. This is the way man builds things. It is a practical, efficient way of doing it.
Now imagine a time before Newton and Euclid. There was a time of no machines, no production lines. Circles and irregular shapes could be made with no more effort than rectangles and stright lines. And so, they were. Measurements were not precise, because there was no means to make precise measurements. Straight lines, square corners and flatness were barely a consideration.
I guess retirement gives time to consider such things. No, the fate of the free world does not hang in the balance, but I’ve always felt that we could be a little more free with our thinking, not so “boxed in” if you will. I’ve looked at our natural surroundings and noticed that there is effectively no such thing as a straight line, rectangle, circle or any other Euclidianly definable shape. I think it’s not just in our construction, but it is in the way we think. Everything we encounter must have an answer or solution. Everything must be definable. Everything must be either right or wrong, good or bad. Even people can’t just be people. We are categorized, analyzed, stigmatized, compartmentalized, and quantified.
So, I needed to take all of the above, and fit it into fifty words. The following is the result:
PERFECT IMPERFECTION
Does it make sense?
Nature’s perfect order
Is so random.
Squares, rectangles
Triangles and circles
Exist mostly
In our minds.
Do straight lines
Lead us to something
Or away from nature,
Away from true home?
Nature is perfect
Imperfection,
Randomness an
Ideal.
Do not attempt
To comprehend.
You cannot know.