"Good Enough"

I came across the blog site of someone I know who wrote the following; "If something is 'Good Enough', it is not mediocre, but neither is it gold plated. Perfection is the enemy of Good Enough, life is too short to waste on trying to build something perfect...".

I have to say, this rubs me the wrong way. In my mind the very definition of mediocre is 'good enough'. Not good, not bad, moderate quality. How would you like to be on your deathbed and think "My life was mediocre.". Sadly, most of us don't think that far ahead until it's too late.

So we have a chance. I do not want to know that anything I did was merely good enough. That the legacy I leave behind is merely good enough. That at my eulogy the only honest thing spoken is "she was good enough".

No. A life spent in the pursuit of mastery is not wasted. What is a blackbelt here other than a perfectionist control freak who understands the benefits of striving to be better. Why would a life spent always trying to do better be wasted? Once I reach perfect mastery then I'll say "Good Enough".

Never Too Old for Playtime!

First, quick update on my tummy issues. Doctors finally figured out that I had become hypersensitive to fats and MSG, causing my gallbladder and everything else to freak out any time I ate. So after a couple weeks of a bland, mostly liquid diet my system was able to reset and I'm back to normal.

More recent update, I somehow managed to break a bone in the back of my hand racing a friend in an inflatable obstacle course. I was winning to. Managed to finish the course, but lost unfortunately. So the result of that is I now have a half cast on one arm and an iv in the other and get to have surgery tomorrow to place two titanium screws in my hand. My first broken bone and a pick a great one to bust. So don't freak out if you see me at classes tonight with extra hardware. The way I see it is this just just my first step towards my lifelong goal of a bionic body with a titanium spine. One small piece at a time. Incremental progress, right?

So, no pushups for me. Unless I learn to do them one armed with a bad shoulder. I also think I'm past my quota for hospital trips this year. But those are some beautiful looking bones, are they not? Ignoring the broken one...

If Only...

So did anyone else watch Kung Fu Panda III and at the end hope that DreamWorks somehow had the quick, easy answer to mastering chi, maybe some magic philosophy that connected all the dots and pow! you're a chi goddess? Yeah, that was me.

Funny, things don't work that way. But then the rational side of me kicks in and thinks, well if it were that easy everyone could do it and it wouldn't be worth the pursuit. But that doesn't stop the dreamy side of me from wishing anyways.

I feel like have some of the necessary understanding, many of the necessary tools. What is lacking is the ability. Years of training behind me with many more years ahead of me before I can make a flower bloom. It's intimidating. You can't see any immediate results so you can't help but wonder if you're making any progress. I wouldn't want to find out after years of trudging down the path that I'm on the wrong path. There are few markers to tell you if you're heading the right way. Only a few moments that just seem right or moments when yeah, I can feel it, but am I feeling my chi or am I just having circulation problems in my hands?

Then, you meet people who figure they have it all mastered after a couple days at some seminar and poof! they have the ability to heal me. Look, there's a certificate on the wall so it must be true. I shake my head and think to myself, after 20 years I'm finally at a point where I stand a chance of learning this stuff and she's telling me that after 20 hours she's a master. I must be missing the world's largest piece of the puzzle here. Or maybe they just understood the lesson better than me at the end of Kung Fu Panda.

By the way, the yin yang move at the end doesn't work either. No glowing paw pads here. Looks cool though.