In Fifth Element, the movie, they describe the star as "perfect" without really getting into what they mean. What would be considered perfect has to be a variable, right? The teacup we use for a tea ceremony is not going to be the one you use drinking tea with the Queen Mum. If you went to a bar and were looking to get laid you wouldn't think a sweet 17 year old was perfect, unless you were a seriously sick person. Or horny. But the point here is that perfection is relative and variable. Yet we speak of achieving perfection as a kind of goal, as if it's a single point we can reach. We speak of a perfect government, although most politicians give themselves some wiggle room by claiming they think that true perfection is not possible. I think it's possible, for the moment, but they act like it can only be attained at a 50%-75% rate. Like a discount perfection. Thing is, what was perfect will change and what received that perfect thing will change.

Then there's the time you had something horrible happen, like a flat tire, in the rain on the way to an important event, like a birth. You say to the universe, "Perfect!" and dig out the jack. But you meant it at the time. That final straw, that broken back, was perfect for the moment. It was the tip of the pyramid. In that moment you knew that Someone was watching.... and laughing. Well, maybe not laughing, but certainly involved.

So perfection is often the moment of transcendence when we have tangible proof of celestrial involvement. The perfect woman walks in the door just as you are thinking of going celibate. You look over the recipe to make sure it doesn't contain any ingredients that would make it problematic and find only those things you need. It's perfect. Then the perfect woman ages and grows hair on her chin and farts under the covers. No longer perfect for that young man, she has become less than desirable.... for that young man. But the young man has aged, has grey hair in his ears and farts in unison. Together, their child exclaims, they are a perfect match. Like two sides of a coin, or two pieces of a puzzle, they fit.

When damaged goods match damaged goods, they are perfect. And all goods are damaged. Unlike the concept of Original Sin, which is a sick device for keeping people under control, being imperfect for one simply means being perfect for another cause. If our original sin was that we acted according to our nature, then we were perfect for the time. We knew nothing of sin, nothing of right and wrong, and because we could not conceive of such things, we believed the serpent, the symbol of the Goddess. We were told that the fruit of knowlege would give us understanding and would not kill us. After tasting the fruit the first Man said to his wife, "Perfect! Now we have to put on some clothes and live in pain!" Well, that's what they tell us. Actually the first thing that would have crossed his mind is that Eve had a perfect figure. She had perky breasts, having never given birth. Her waist was supple and her skin tanned. She had never known disease or bad breath. She was perfect. I'm sure they weren't so much hiding from God as playing at the two backed camel game. They also would have known that their God, their Father, was capable of lies. They would have gathered up some concept of that basd on the fact that they were alive and not dead, dead, dead. Maybe they thought they had a few minutes before the death thing kicked in and so took a few minutes to explore their perfect bodies. Knowlege of good and evil would have included things like how good it was to snuggle and whisper to one another.

Having found that they were human, naked, and offspring of a Being who could lie and threaten, they hid. They understood "wrong" and their Father was "wrong". He was not a perfect being. But that thing that Eve did to Adam came real close to perfection, if you asked Adam.

The place they came to must have been perfect. Plenty of water, good soil, plenty of game nearby. The kids were hard workers, although they fought sometimes. Life was good, not evil, and they did alright by themselves. Perfection is attainable is small amounts and you get to keep it for a small amount of time. Expectation of more is greedy. Not evil, mind you, but greedy. Perfection is not perfect in too great an amount. Say you're in that bar, looking to get laid and the 19 year old with the firm body comes up to you and seems to want to connect. Then another young thing comes up and chats and another, until you have 30-40 sweet, desirable young things all demanding your attention. This is fun, but disturbing. This makes you wonder what's going on. Not exactly perfect. You get a beer and it's a nut brown ale with just the right amount of hops. Perfect head, perfect color. Maybe you don't notice because perfect young thing #25 is suggesting you two leave for an apartment nearby. That's not perfect, it becomes more nightmarish.

We demand too much of perfection. We expect it to last, unlike the perfect triple rainbow we saw once. We expect it to last unlike an orgasm lasts. We expect it to last like a summer afternoon in the garden with a child examining a flower. Perfection lasts as long as it is perfect, like a soap bubble.

When we popped Jesus's bubble he was far from perfect. He was dirty, bloody, scarred and dying. We made him as unperfect as we could before discarding him. When we get a shirt that is perfect for going to work we wear it out going to work until it becomes a perfect dust cloth. Like all living things, perfection changes or dies. Or both, changes and then dies. Like Osiris being chopped up and scatterd and then resewn and restored, perfection changes. Things which do not change, never evolve or grow, would soon become not perfect because we would change. Being living things, we move on and our perfect concepts change. That 19 year old with the beautiful body would never understand about watching a child being played with by a grandmother, or the feeling of loss when the hand you are holding grows cold and the eyes on that face must be closed. That perfect body might not have a perfect mind and so even in perfection there is room for growth and life. We are offered both crystals and mud. It's up to us to see the perfection in each. By doing so we can become perfect for an instant.

A perfect instant lasts a perfect eternity. As above, so below; as below, so above.