Is Perfection Unattainable?
Updated: Mar 2, 2023
Are we experiencing a deconstruction of our perfection culture?
Image by Unsplash.
The on-camera experience and its effect on our personality, perception, and presence
The following are my observations on the phenomenon at the start of the 2020 Pandemic, and to a considerable extent, the continuation of such, in letting it all hang out at an invitation to be on a video conference that usually brings with it the anxiety of appearance of person and ambiance.
Scruffy mustaches and goatees flattened and listless hair, less than camera-ready backgrounds, and glimpses into people’s homes, and perhaps, their personalities. Holed up in my home, as are many folks across the world during this pandemic, I occasionally glance up at the television, which is muted, to see those whom we generally refer to as TV personalities looking at times, less than stellar.
This is a historical moment where it is apparently a time to strip all notions and appearance down to the basics. That applies to all that makes us who we are. For me, it is the worship experience, the laundry experience, the home environment, friends, and family, and not necessarily in that order.
It is near impossible for me to think of anything other than what is necessary for survival in a crisis. First, how do I survive physically? That is, is my notion of life as that of a person who has lived with a psychiatric disability for decades of a sound construct now? What do I want to accompany me for food during this time? Other considerations are the personal protective pieces I will need when I venture out.
Then I realized I wasn’t the only one that had stripped down to the basics. So, it seems too, were our TV personalities. But for some, this seems to be a moment in history to shatter the perfection that seems to have pervaded our society. Enter the scruffy beards and the eccentric backdrops that raged from Bookcases for the intellectual look to the photographs that speak of family and connection to the vista of dining and living rooms and the occasional exercise equipment.
Where did our obsession with perfection go? Was it too much to maintain the illusion that all is an airbrushed, pardon, phot-shopped world? Is this the beginning of a deconstruction of the egocentric perfection that left so many feeling they did not add up? With the closure of hair salons and barbershops, it seems folk seems just to let all go.
