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Perfectionist Behavior

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Yesterday after yoga class, while I was in their neck of the woods, I dropped in on Denise and Justin. Mostly I wanted to give Denise her birthday present, but then we got to talking and then it became kind of hard to stop. One topic led to the next and after a while we found ourselves talking about perfect people — the kind who have it all, who make life look so easy, the ones who are just so happy. Primarily we were talking about how no one likes perfect people in all their perfectness. We even started giving examples of perfect people we disliked or who had too many fortunate situations placed before them. As Denise and Justin weighed in, I really felt myself connecting to them both on a new level. These were my cousins and they just understood me. They were on my side. Too bad the world wasn’t full of cousins, the kind who understand you completely, the ones who know how aggravating perfect people can be.

I was becoming lost in thought — maybe we could do something impactful, something big, like starting a new Facebook group with the express purpose of “Disliking Perfect People,” a big group of non-perfect people just like us — when Denise turned to Justin, an index finger poised contemplatively on her cheek.
“Hmm… Maybe we shouldn’t send out those Christmas cards with the pictures of us in Hawaii and Japan,” she said.
“But we took those pictures with the Christmas card in mind!” Justin said.
And then I knew that I had been mistaken. In fact, I was not in the presence of those who could rally and join me in my anti-perfect ways. I was with two people who plan their Christmas cards months and months in advance, while they are on a few of their many vacations in exciting and tropical regions of the world. And here they were pretending to be non-perfect people.

Last modified: January 10, 2019