Perfect Day

 In this section, I hope to discuss the idea of a perfect day. The perfect day is an imaginary concept, but one we strive for nevertheless. Why is it, therefore, that we strive for something that we know ourselves to be incapable of reaching? After all, as mortals, we are natural sinners; we often fail to see the long-term consequences of our actions, instead choosing to take cheaper alternatives, and to indulge in sinful deeds. But nonetheless, despite all our follies, why do we continue to return to this idea of perfection, and aim to strive after it?

One explanation I have goes back to spirituality, or at least the philosophy of morality, and is centered around our desire to achieve a divine state of being, one in which we don't inflict suffering upon ourselves voluntarily, thereby necessitating suffering through an ignoble ordeal. Our mistakes (and particularly the suffering that follows reminds us of our faults, and often causes us to feel shame for who we are. For example, willful sinning in the form of indulging in vices (such as, in my case, playing too much bullet chess) causes me to feel regret for my actions, and a strong desire to meet the standards of who I could have been, had I made the right choice. This burden of consciousness pushes me, then, to be virtuous, and to abstain from the short-lived and sinful pleasures that I see before myself. I make it my goal to rid myself of this burden, and to engage in the actions that, though difficult (and probably because they are difficult), give me not only a snese of ulterior satisfaction in myself, but also a sense of inspired pride for who I could be, and joy at the prospect of pushing my limits, and raising my own bar, the opportunity of which comes directly as a consequence of pursuing the so-called "straight and narrow path".

When I fantasize about having a perfect day, I long to unleash the divine being within myself, to use the metaphor formulated in the Hindu religion. I wish to maximize my inner divinity, while humbling myself, and realizing yet how far I have to go to even come close to this deep-rooted sense of God or higher being, which exists in the minds and subconscious aspirations of all motivated individuals, though they may not choose to brand this lofty ideal, composed of and distinguished by noble suffering (i.e. suffering that one commits to endure out of a desire to achieve a difficult, but ultimately intrinsically meaningful goal--as distinguished by ignoble suffering, which is not inflicted voluntarily, but rather by the hedonistic and anti-righteous desire for short-lived pleasure), with the a spiritual or divine label.

To me, wishing for a perfect day is a sign of the unleashing of my inner light, which stretches its golden arm with the goal of grasping an intractable idea, or the closest thing it can grasp to it. In doing so, the golden arm becomes stronger, and by exposing its purity to the dirty, cold, treacherous environment, by putting itself through suffering, rather than staying inside its comfort zone and growing weaker, finds some sense of beauty, wishes to continue to stretch out further in search of deeper beauty, though its wishes and expression may be muffled (though hopefully not for long) by the louder feelings of suffering or temptation that pass.