Worst Advice Ever:

Worst Advice Ever:

So I was reading something recently

 about someone who was recounting how he had become whatever—fill in the blank(writer, tech designer, painter, dancer) and how this person’s father had taught him an invaluable lesson. That if you can’t do it right just don’t do it at all.

I for one think this is the lousiest advice anyone can ever give to anyone else. It completely ignores how valuable doing it wrong is. How else are we to learn, to gather strength, to dare to do anything. I am a celebrant of flaws, mistakes and colossal goofs. I feel that I rarely ever get it right. There are always things that I see in a book after it comes out that I wished I had done differently. But nevertheless it has always been worth the trip. So as a corollary I shall say I am also an enemy of perfection. Some poet maybe Emily Dickinson or perhaps May Sarton said—“Perfection is a cold hard thing.”

And since we have just arrived in Maine and I am glorying in the sky, the osprey soaring over the cove and my garden from which I just picked these peonies. Their heady fragrance is unbelievable but just remember—these beauties are riddled with ants. Yes nothing is perfect. The ants are part of the package. I might have one just now tickling my nose from sniffing the scent and if a few crawl across the dinner table tonight, so be it! 


Want to learn about upcoming books?

please join our mailing list!