Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Excellence versus Perfection

So i've been rocking out of late, too hard perhaps. You know, hangover, wake up, work, surf, begin drinking again, repeat. It's wrecking havoc on my rig and I need a break. Maybe after next weekend. Or maybe after the 4th of July, so a couple weekends. Ah, fuck it, it's summer, I'm young.

I got an email from a friend last week and just got around (read: finally put down intoxicants long enough) to reading it. It was one of those chain emails and it was by Jay Leno, certainly not one of my heroes, and someone who I think is pretty damn annoying and not too funny. Nonetheless the note said that 69% of Americans are unhappy with the direction of the country then goes on to cite a bunch of reasons why America isn't doing quite so bad: running water and electricity, cars everywhere, safety basically guaranteed everywhere, etc.

The cerebral side of me wanted to pick a few of the items apart before systematically and symbolically ripping Leno a new one, but I got one important message, and one I learned from the friend who sent it to me. Americans strive to live in perfection. We are taught from a young age to make things perfect, our food is ultra-manicured (though you don't realize it until you try food in other countries), our sidewalks look perfect, and we constantly try to battle age with money.

Herein lies the problem: we must strive to live in excellence rather than live in perfection. If we try to live in perfection we will never be satisfied because perfection is impossible. There is always something to be improved upon. The professor in my Chinese Buddhism course a couple years ago talked a lot about different types of attachment. The strongest one is ego-attachment. Someone who is ego-attached is attached to an idea of the self and the idea that there is something constant and undying within that self that is capable of producing the same, perfect results consistently. We change all the time so there is no permanent self.

Perfection isn't such a great goal anyway. Perfection implies that there is a model or mold for how something much be done and leaves no room for change. Columbus, Einstein, Edison, Darwin, Socrates, and scores of other legendary thinkers and doers were absolutely dissatisfied with the status quo. They wanted to make something that was new and excellent, not just old and perfected. Socrates said to question everything, Edison followed suit and added action to produce a light bulb. Was it perfect? Far from, but it worked and produced a model upon which future engineers could improve.

This was a great lesson for me on which to end my day. It was a day in which I woke up with a headache and too little sleep, went to work and was bored for 8 hours, then surfed like shit in shitty waves. It may have been subpar, but at least I had a great time last night, have a job, and got to ride my bike to surf in warm water. Subpar for me, and far from perfect, but in retrospect, pretty excellent.

Sunday, June 1, 2008

I'm back and in love once again.

It's been a long time since my last blog, but I haven't really been surfing either so I have a good excuse. After getting back from my trip up the West Coast I worked catering for a few weeks while looking for jobs. On May 12 I left for England for 10 days with my family. You can see the photos here: www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2239790&l=21bb7&id=3614440.

It was a freaking amazing trip that culminated with scattering my deceased Nana's ashes in the river where she played as a young girl. I got to have a night out with my cousins in Liverpool and observe how the English do their club dancing - I call it Shake and Mad Dog. The men stand around in a semi-circle with tough guy looks on their faces and the women dance in the circle, with each other, dressed like skanks, and somewhat coordinated with each other. I don't know if the English don't like the mix men and women on the floor, if they are timid, or just being proper as they tend to be. Veritably odd.

I got back and was only home for two nights before going to my friend's wedding in Vegas. She got Elvis to sing as she came in and as she and her new husband were pronounced man and wife. They say what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, and that Vegas is sin city - I just don't see it. They only thing that stays there is a lot of money if you gamble a lot or decide to pay a cover at a club. Luckily we had a couple hookups and didn't have to pay much to get into these lameass clubs. It was nothing I haven't seen or done at a club in Southern CA. Still, it was great being sardined into a hotel room with all the SB ladies.

Straight back from Vegas and a quick jaunt to SB for a BBQ and bowling I was at my new temp job at a Spanish language TV station near my house here in the city of angels. The people are great and it's an ideal scenario as a temp.

This weekend was my grandma's 75th birthday party at my parents' house in SD and I took the opportunity to return to surfing. I only surfed a few days the entire month of May and I was starting to go a little crazy. Needless to say, enjoying the warm water that often comes with June, along with my home break, I am in love once again. Maybe I needed some time, or maybe I was just being a dumbass, or maybe I was just not within 300 miles of an waves for most of the month. Regardless, I am once again committed to shredding to my heart's content and letting all else fall by the wayside.