Most of my waking moments, I am dressed in a shirt and tie and suit. I can put a tie on faster than any human I know. However, on occasion the tie can become askew on my collar angling to one side or the other. Here is the interesting part: It is without fail that within an hour of putting on my tie someone with whom I come in contact will approach me and attempt to adjust my tie to put it in the center of my collar. I find this to be fascinating. My wife and my mother don't do this, but many others feel a responsibility to set me straight, to make me perfect. I often comment, "Hey, I am little off-center anyway!" Why? Why do so many people feel a need to tie a knot and then perfectly place it? Our world is not like this. Our lives are not like this. Human exisence is not like this – why should my tie be? Many of us have difficulty with imperfection.

And yet, none of us are perfect. We are all askew in one way or another. This is a fact of life, but it is a fact that some find hard to believe. People strive for perfection, which, in and of itself, is a worthy goal, but we should not be disillusioned when we fall short of that perfection. The trick is to be just a little farther ahead than we were when we started the journey.

In reading the book, The Spirituality of Imperfection, this story is told:
One day a rabbi, in a frenzy of religious passion, rushed in before the ark, fell to his knees, and started beating his breast crying, "I'm nobody! I'm nobody!" The cantor of the synagogue, impressed by this example of the spiritual humility, joined the rabbi on his knees, saying, "I'm nobody! I'm nobody!" The shamus (the caretaker) watching from the corner couldn't restrain himself either. He joined the other two on his knees, calling out, "I'm nobody. I'm nobody!" At which point the rabbi, nudging the cantor with his elbow, pointed at the shamus and said, "Look who thinks he's nobody!" While perfection can be taken to unreasonable ends, so too can humility, for it also has its limits. One should not be so humble as to think he or she is nobody. And neither should one feel that he or she is everything.

Our duty on earth is to explore our fullest potential of our God-given gifts. What is important to remember, though, is that none of us is God. Only God is God and only God is perfect. If we were to understand the full nature of God's goodness then indeed we would reach perfection, but that is the difference between God and humanity. We struggle to reach the Garden of Eden and God already created it.

Working hard towards our goals can bring meaning to our lives. Beating ourselves up for not reaching some of them can be unfair. We need to give ourselves a break. Perfection is for the perfect – and I have yet to meet a perfect person.

Let's continue bringing meaning to our days by striving to be the best we can be and realizing that the determinedness to reach the destination is often more important than actually reaching the destination. This will keep us humble and ambitious at the same time.
So when people approach me to fix my tie, I intend to ask them, "Aren't you, too, a bit askew?"

Our lives are a work of art, painted with varying brush strokes and brilliant colors. But if one looks hard enough, that picture will certainly have imperfections. In fact, I just learned the other day that even a "flawless diamond" indeed has flaws.