The Perfect

The perfect. Voltaire, the French philosopher, has been attributed with the saying, "Don't allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good." I wish this was something I had learned long ago in my life. It is easy to discount the good you have accomplished by comparing it to what could have been. Sometimes we don't acknowledge the level of effort required for the good. Sometimes we don't celebrate the good as good enough. I am reminded  of this when I think about a wise second grader back when I began my teaching career in Cedar Hill. I had made Christmas ornaments for each child in my class and I was hanging them onto our tree. I was actually not too pleased at how the lettering had turned out and was expressing my discontent to my student. Her reply has stuck with me for over thirty years. She simply  and sincerely replied, "Well they're good enough for kids." She was correct. They had been made with love by her teacher and that was enough for her. Whether they were perfect or not didn't really matter. Don't let your enemy be the perfect.