The Pursuit of Perfection
Written by: Renee BlackStar
Photo by: Giovanni Orlando
“Show me a poet with a perfect life and I’ll show you an actor behind the mic…”
– Ccep J. Dew
“Nobody is perfect…”
It isn’t a new concept. Who hasn’t heard that one a million times before this moment? As overused as that phrase is, the reason it has managed to transcend time and social class is because it happens to be one of the truest statements ever made regarding humanity’s issues with social behavioral dysfunction. Being that we are all actors of sorts in this dramatic and complicated stage play called “Life”, each of us carries the lead in our own personal scenes. We’re diligently acting out our monologues in support of other cast members in the storyline on a daily basis. We have become masters at putting on a secondary face for the world outside of ourselves, perfecting the art of hiding the truth behind a forced smile and hiding reality behind a wad of money… or lack thereof. And some of us are so good at it that we can even parlay our chameleon-like abilities into a successful and lucrative acting career. And like a professional bricklayer, through the course of our lives, we each are methodically building up our walls to keep the real world out, trying our best to protect ourselves from the nastiness that is the side eye of society. But, if the walls we put up could tell the truth about us…what would they say? Are we keeping the world out, or are we hiding ourselves from it? There’s a very thin line between the two, and we highly regard the few that are savvy enough to straddle the line without breaking a sweat. But, oftentimes, the balancing act is just way too complicated for most of us. It’s so much easier to just forsake our genuine selves and just pretend to be someone else. Enter the pursuit of perfection.
What is with our society and its obsessive need to tackle perfection to the ground and rob it of all of its most natural and positive attributes? There are so many people in the world that take pursuit of happiness to a whole unashamed new level. Some people are so driven with attaining it that they become like crazed mad-men, completely obsessed with controlling every aspect in the order of their lives and, sometimes, other people’s lives as well, as if life itself would be less worth living if it were occasionally disorganized.
We find this dysfunction occurring especially in groups of people experiencing a lifestyle in the high profile or elitist arena. Most entertainers and performers, models, athletes, politicians, and community leaders act as role models for our society. They are so obsessed with their image that they find it necessary to employ PR companies to help them create and maintain a positive image of themselves and their stage personalities. And they do this mainly because they know we hate messy role models, and they know we are always watching their every move, just waiting rabidly on the sidelines to catch them slipping. And, besides the invasive nature of it all, many of them thrive off of this very same idolization. It’s a love/hate relationship, but it’s what they get compensated so handsomely to endure. But, don’t judge them too harshly because you can’t make it all the way to the top without having some kind of vanity about you. Any of us could be the same if we were in their shoes. It just comes with the territory for them, and it is their reality, but not that of the “average” person. That alternate universe they live in comes at a very steep price. And most of us don’t have that kind of money.
It is perhaps the natural order of society that we pick the people most perfect among us with the most perfect set of circumstances, place them high up on a pedestal of ridiculous and dizzying proportions, and then worship their attributes (sometimes both good and bad) as if ours were completely insignificant in comparison.
They need you to buy into this picture of perfection because that’s how they make their fortunes. Somehow they know, if they can tap into your envy (which in most people isn’t hard to find) and compel your curiosity, then they can find your pot of gold (which could be your attention or your wallet) and then steal it right from under you… over and over again. And as much as we know we shouldn’t, we allow ourselves to be continuously taken for that ride because envy… is habit forming. And although we’d never admit it, we all secretly wish our lives were as exciting and fabulous as the lives of entertainers we admire because we are in love with the idea and possibility of having it ALL.
And knowing this, the guys behind the fame machine have become so successful at suckering us because they know that underneath it all, the reason we cling to and glorify athletes, actors, and other social butterflies is because we “average” people unapologetically allow ourselves to live vicariously through their experiences, not realizing, or not even caring, that these people, although hugely successful and seemingly perfect, are still only the most human of beings… just like us. But, that fact becomes harder to take seriously when your consciousness is constantly being barraged a million times a day with PR tactics infiltrating every form of media there is, courtesy of the high-powered marketing prowess of the disgustingly rich and famous. It’s so crazy that we get so crazy over fame!
But, don’t think it’s just today’s society. It’s been this way since the dawn of the civilized world. It is perhaps the natural order of society that we pick the people most perfect among us with the most perfect set of circumstances, place them high up on a pedestal of ridiculous and dizzying proportions, and then worship their attributes (sometimes both good and bad) as if ours were completely insignificant in comparison.
Maybe it’s a lesson we need to keep learning because it keeps the beauty and sensibility of appreciating what
we do have fresh in our minds. How else would we know how good our lives are unless we can periodically see how messed up somebody else’s is?
What’s even more amazing, though, is how fast we turn on them as soon as it is proven that they aren’t the superhuman entities that they have portrayed themselves to be. And, oh, how disappointed we get when we learn of our favorite superstar’s indiscretions. We are relentless in our witch-hunt, throwing stones at their castles from our glass huts. Spending more time gossiping about how bad that person failed at life than talking about how bad we’ve been failing at being a good person in our own.
Maybe we indulge in this type of fodder because it reminds us at times of how much better our “normal” lives actually are compared to the unstable, yet impressive existence that is the allusively perfect world of a star. Maybe it’s a lesson we need to keep learning because it keeps the beauty and sensibility of appreciating what we do have fresh in our minds. How else would we know how good our lives are unless we can periodically see how messed up somebody else’s is?
It’s a shallow lesson to learn, and a failed attempt at realizing that money can buy you the ideal life and even a bootlegged copy of happiness, but it won’t buy you perfection because true, untarnished perfection is found in a natural state of existence. It gets its particular wonder from its antithesis; imperfection. It’s so special and exclusive, in fact, that it cannot be created in a lab, or hustled, or stolen. Each of us can arguably be viewed as perfect in part because of our most dominate imperfections. It’s what gives us our charm. Maybe if we learned how to live more of our lives in the first person, we could more readily find that ideal perfection that we so diligently seek.
