Jordan Parker

So, I was having a natter with one of my new friends I’ve made since moving here and he proposed a question along the lines of ‘In a world that is completely efficient and constantly strives for more streamlined processes and the essense of ‘perfection’, what value do we lose in the pursuit in this?’

I thought to myself at the time “Bloody hell, that’s a good question – I think I’ve made the right kind of friends here for me!”. Approaching the question however, I would believe the most obvious forfeit for efficiency is the developmental aspects of making mistakes naturally and learning from them. I suppose you could recontextualise the question regarding that of production and assembly lines however, in this instance, I’d like to focus my thoughts regarding that of the imperfections dwelling in humanity and our constant desires to appear outwardly towards the world.

If we take a child and tell them, before they’ve taken a step, exactly how to act and what to do to achieve from our perspectives then the child, in essense, is following orders are doesn’t necessarily learn anything for themselves. How can they when they’ve already be instructed on how the world operates? Will that child learn to… well ‘learn’? In this scenario, I would say no. Mistakes are merely straying from the prescribed route and could only ever teach that child to stay in line and reject any additional or non-conforming thought. I think that would be a cruel thing to do… kids are just smaller an inexperienced adults after all – their brains are a tad different of course but they aren’t exactly incapable of rational and experimental thinking.

If I refocus on ‘perfection’, I’d contemplate the notion that there’s a unique signature in what strays from some arbitray, idylic line. The dent didn’t come out of the factory did it? (For the most part!) The lives we live, the mistakes we make and the personal and totally original journey that every person on the planet is destined to take part in – is there not a beauty in that personal expereince? With ‘perfect’ meaning so many different things to so many different kinds of people then what can really be perfect? Everyone has their own standpoint on the subject matter and as such there’s no constant – possibly a ‘personal perfection’ could find some footing but I’d still be hard-pressed to use the term. An object is the sum of its parts and no two parts shared across two individuals will hold an exact resemblance; what makes us unique is what allows people like me, people like you, anybody out there to address themselves as ‘Me’.

Nobody can be a you than you yourself.