Deepak Chopra tells us, “Perfection is in the realization of our nature.” The guy who wrote the Little Prince, that French author, he says, “Perfection is not when there is no more to add, but no more to take away.”
Not to place myself in the orbit of such luminous minds, but I have been thinking about perfection, since I myself achieved it, not once, but twice. The first time was at Starbucks when I ordered an oat milk latte. The barista looked over at me and said, Perfect. I had thought my drink order was pretty good, but Emily confirmed that I had finally achieved a moment of perfection in my 55 years on Earth, and I had used none of the six tools ChatGPT says the bodhisattvas use to achieve perfection: generosity, morality, patience, diligence, concentration, or wisdom. My tools were hot water and oat milk.
I was fully prepared to rest in this achievement except I did something that even the Buddha was never able to do, I achieved perfection a second time. Believe it or not, I was again at Starbucks. This time I ordered medium dark roast with a one of those green stoppers in the lid, and I was again told, “perfect.”
I was dubious, since there can only be one state of perfection, with everything else either missing or coming close. So how could two such divergent orders both be perfect? But perfection is in the eye of the barista. Even ChatGPT agreed with me on that score, adding, “baristas strive to achieve a high level of excellence in their craft, focusing on factors such as the taste, presentation, and consistency of the beverages they serve.”
True. And no human could put it so perfectly.
I’m Dan Libman, that’s my perspective
