Perfection

Perfection, they say, is a never-ending pursuit. People have spent a fortune on achieving it while others have been driven to insanity. But the irony is nobody has ever achieved it.

You always want the Ferrari you spotted at the traffic signal today or the Armani that your boss affords. Once there, you will want a Royce and want your suits tailored by the same man who does it for Prince Charles. If not costly materialistic things, you at least desire to have lesser workload, more time to sleep, to hang out with friends, a wife who doesn’t snore or simply a garden which grows more than orange marigolds. The list is endless.

But the question is are you ready for perfection? Can you face it when life no longer holds the charm of the unexpected and the odd faults? I will narrate to you a modified version of a story shown on the hit TV show “Twilight Zone” that will surely give a new perspective to the pursuit of perfection. For those who are already familiar with the episode, you can do well with a reminder!

Here it goes…

There was once a lady, call her Mrs. Hoffman, who was obsessed with perfection in the strictest terms of the word. A full-time housewife she would spend the whole day making the bed, putting things in the “perfect” order and redoing everything over and over again until things seemed “perfect”.

She simply hated her messy and lazy husband. He woke up late. Never once bothered to surprise her with bed-tea or a bouquet of her favourite tulips. Worked late hours and could never spend quality time with her. Always poured ink onto the new shirt she gifted him. In short, a mess.

Mrs. Hoffman’s son was a notch higher in terms of being messy. His room was a synonym for chaos. Homework assignments were never completed on time. The high school teachers had the most to complain about him at a PT meeting.

To top it all off, their dog, Danny, answered nature’s call almost anywhere in the house. Mrs. Hoffman had already had to change her favourite Persian carpet since it had been torn apart by Danny and pissed all over.

How she wished she had a better life – a perfect one. If only her family was the ideal one where everyone was at their best behaviour always. She used to sleep on this thought almost every night. But this particular night was different. She felt she had had enough. While falling asleep she especially begged the heavenly powers to change her life and to make everything perfect around her.

Early next morning she was woken up a man – the most handsome and courteous man she had ever seen, but a complete stranger.

She sat up in her bed all shocked and shouted, “Who the hell are you? And what are you doing in my bedroom at this time of the day?”

The man gently ran his hands through her hair and said, “Sweetie, it’s me, Jack, your hubby. What happened? You had a bad dream? Here, take this cup of tea. I specially made it before you could wake up.”

Mrs. Hoffman’s jaws dropped and she stared completely stupefied. It was her husband indeed since only she called him Jack; to the world he was Benjamin Hoffman. But what she could not believe was how her husband had changed physically as well as in manners to such a “perfect” man.

“Perfect”. The word started ringing in her ears. She had a sneaking and horrifying suspicion. Had her wish really come true?

She rushed to her son’s room. The room was almost Singaporesque in its cleanliness. But she stood flabbergasted when she found yet another stranger on her son’s bed. This boy could win the “Cutest Kid” award by miles in any competition in the world and there he was silently sleeping away. As she touched him, he sprang to life and hugged her tight. He then announced, “Good morning Mom. I love you.” Mrs. Hoffman could have fainted there and then.

As the boy made his way to the toilet, a strange dog came licking at her feet. Again it was the most gentle and clean and well mannered dog ever.

It was all not sinking in. Mrs. Hoffman rushed to the living room to just lie on the couch and get herself composed. As she sat next to the fire, she caught a glance of the family picture framed over the fireplace. To her utter disbelief, the picture now had, apart from her, her “new” husband, son and dog.

As the day progressed, she tried very hard to reconcile herself to this “perfect” family. Every time she saw either her hubby or her son, they flashed the best smile. She was supposed to be happy now that everything was perfect around her. But, strangely she wasn’t.

She was going mad.

Mrs. Hoffman decided to finally run away from all this and hope that when she returned things were back to normal. She opened the front door of her house and rushed out.

But alas, the door led her back into her house. Yes. She was trapped in her “perfect” world. She could not get out of it. All the doors led back to her house. Finally, she was going to live the “perfect life” forever – with her perfect husband, son and dog.

So…friends…think again. Are you ready for perfection? Or is the world more charming as it is?

Fuehrer