Originally authored 12/14/09- edited/first published 2/14/21.

By taking editorial liberty with a great line from the film Amadeus,  I can be best described as a Prince in the seeker of perfection, but perhaps the undisputed King of Mediocrity………and I am finding  through the wisdom of age……it’s not a half bad existence. 

Don’t confuse that statement as any submission or acquiescence that underachieving is the measure here. I will be bold enough to say that no one has ever accused me of having an underachieving nature.  My comfortable existence within the considerable sphere of mediocrity is a result of many, many honorable attempts for greatness, followed by pleasurable and pragmatically graded results.   It’s the chase, as they say; the effort itself and it is not at all explicitly about the end result.   I cannot imagine, like a dog chasing a car, what I would ever do with perfection if I ever implausibly caught up with it.  

I will try and explain through examples those moments that define my pursuit of perfection, and subsequently, my comfort in mediocrity amidst all efforts of family, business, and recreation:

In family, it is the small acknowledgement, or light in the corner of a family member or friend’s eye when I have not stumbled, but said or made just the right effort to bring help or understanding.  While best I try, I do stumble on that path a lot, blurring desired perfection, but those missteps accentuate the successful moments.  A question answered, an attentive ear, a physical presence of support, and finding my best foot forward in that assistance.

I find business the hardest as I attempt to master that ocean of which I do not know.   It is the contribution of producing and delivering useful information and results, the acceptance and acknowledgement from others of timely support or guidance I may have provided, and the benchmarking in the pursuit of the next correct course of action. 

Recreation examples seem keener to define.  As a classified “lowest denominator of recreational golfer”, it is for me that one perfect golf shot per round that includes an ever-increasing inhale of breath and the indescribable feeling of satisfaction as the ball travels its flight. From the many years past since softball was the  “thing” that filled recreation time, it is still the memory of that rare catch of a fly ball on a dead run, or the almost inexplicable  throw to first after fielding a hard hit ball, and getting the out.  As a swimmer, it was through fair technique that allowed that amazing “one-with-the-water” feel of being propelled unimpeded, creating seams in the water while gliding in a silk like envelopment.  While Inline skating, it is the momentum building, fluid, and rhythmically consistent strides over a smooth surface on a still and picturesque summer evening.  In a most rewarding of successful moments of recreational effort, it is during a single run out of an entire day of Alpine Snowboarding through the crisp winter air that I have produce an uninterrupted and fluidly linked carved path down the hill; having allowed for a surreal and gravity defying feeling over perfectly groomed mattresses of snow.

I drive for a personal best in which to serve my family and friends.  I look to be the best at what I can provide in my work.  Memories of successful efforts have allowed me to live with my golf score and my past softball obsolesce.  I can exalt in having known those rewarding results during swimming, inline skating and alpine boarding.  From these things I have done, I will continue to do all things with full knowledge that it is the fruitful moments, not the majority of time spent, that will carry me toward my next honorable and continued attempts at perfection…and thus my full acceptance as the great mediocridite.

Look in the newspaper or internet for the pending report of my captured excellence, but take heart in the absence from those forums that not just I, but everyone can feel personal greatness in those captured moments chasing perfection.