Only Your Best is Good Enough
I have this memory from when I was little. Probably nine or ten years old. My mother was driving us home, passing a spectrum of fall colors on our right, and a small, lonely graveyard on the left. And then my mother imprinted words that haven’t left me since she spoke them:
“Only my best is good enough.”
She had me repeat the phrase to her once, and then again, as if to really drive them home. At the time, I presumed this to mean that my best needed to be perfection. Because the world of a nine year old is awfully small, but wonderfully simple. And so, this little memento bestowed to me took shape as “Get good grades. The best grades. That’ll be good enough.” At the time, it was. A virtue’s box was checked.
As an adult though…the world is not so simple and unfathomably big. Full of branching pathways connecting our choices and their outcomes, and minds fully formed and yet more susceptible than ever. So, what does “Our Best” become? What does it look like? It sure isn’t as easy as getting good grades. It certainly requires more effort than merely saying “Please” and “Thank you.” If I see someone on the street holding up a sign pleading for money, does offering up all the contents of my wallet qualify as my best?
No. I think it begins in the quieter moments. When you’re laying in bed wide awake at 2am, trying not to stare at the clock but can almost feel every “Tick, tick” of each passing second shudder through your body. And it’s just you and your thoughts and the dark, wondering if “all this” means anything - a din of clanging cymbals only you can hear inside your own head. In the middle of it all that chaos surfaces an anthem, still chanting ever so silently, yet persistently. An iceberg breaching a restless ocean.
“Only my best is good enough.”
I’d like to think we’re all trying our best at something. At being a good father. A good wife. A good coworker, or neighbor, or even being a good samaritan once in a while. I think the state of the world hinges on that. On everyone finding their niche and playing their parts. On juggling the burden of things we must do, and the things we want. And when we drop something, we count on others to pick up the slack. Help right our wrongs. Share the burden and keep us running the race. Remind us that “Our Best” may not be perfection, but it is persistence.
