e x c e l l e n c e

I love excellence.

 

Excellent music. Excellent ideas. Excellent photography. Excellent sounds. Excellent movies. Excellent graphic design. Excellent writing. Excellent architecture. Excellent cakes. Excellent stories. Excellent urban design. Excellent words. Excellent food. Excellent arguments. Excellent colours. Excellent craftsmanship. Excellent fabric. Excellent flavours. Excellent fonts.

 

It gets me going. Why waste time consuming things that are sub par?

 

Last year, my brother controlled the aux cord on one long roadtrip. Cue eight painful hours of electro dance music. After a few hours of questioning his intellect and silently judging his life choices, I invited the elephant in the room (well, car) into conversation. He kindly explained that he likes music that allows him to tune out of life, music that fills the background and takes zero effort to digest. 

 

I wholeheartedly disagreed – in that I love music that stirs my mind, music that takes time and analysis to appreciate, music that creates synthesis and inspires new thoughts, ideas and actions. Good music is art, demanding respect and response. Music like rap (hey there Kendrick Lamar), jazz (my life is filled with killer jazz musicians and live gigs) and expertly crafted pop (Jack Antonoff, Joel Little, Lorde, JoshMac) among many more. I like to intentionally listen through albums and analyse the what, how and why of each presentation. A quality rap album for me is like reading and analysing a great novel. Note that I for sure recognise the art of well crafted music that demands little attention (eg LEISURE). Sidenote – I am by no means a musician, nor do I consider my varied taste exhaustive.

 

Thankfully Jonny and I talked some more and empathy replaced my lofty cynicism. I understood that his mind runs 24/7 and creates enough thoughts and stimulation as is – he needs the space that dull music allows. I got off my high horse and respected him a bit more. 

 

 

I see congruence in the intentional choice of how to fill my time (eg, researching and choosing a quality movie vs mindlessly switching on a reality show). Excellence is of value when choosing to create or purchase one thing that will last a long time, rather than amassing lots of mediocre ‘stuff’. Excellence can combat vast consumerism. Goal setting and discernment require excellence. Excellence matters in political thinking, journalism, critiquing, research, leadership and justice.

 

I see discord in the elitism that excellence pursuit brings. Excellence matters little when the people making high quality clothes are mistreated. Commonality and shared experience matter more than excellence in cross cultural communication (as I learnt in Bougainville). Excellent, state-of-the-art things are worthless compared to the environmental impact of their production. Some definitions of excellence lean towards ‘success’ and a self centered, upward linear movement through this world – which cares little for community and those less privileged.

 

 

Yes, don’t worry, I’m a Wesley fan and love God’s sanctifying work in me. He does not call us to mediocrity and He does not let us sit in the person we once were. He is not an average God. He is constantly drawing me closer, pruning me and making me more like His excellent perfection. The Holy Spirit at work in me is far more effective than any striving of my own.

 

But I’m fully aware of my humanity in that sanctification, and am learning to embrace beautiful liminality in which we are created to live. The now and not yet.

 

I’ve had this blog drafted for literally four weeks. I’d return to it every now and then, edit something, write some more, make it more perfect/excellent. While the editing process is crucial and arguably my favourite part of writing, it’s just a glimpse of the crippling effect of excellence in my life. Excellence pursuit can be highly motivating for people gifted in activating – but for those like myself, who are more inclined to start things and generate thousands of ideas, it can slow the process right down. The subconscious goal of perfection lends itself to an ‘all or nothing’ approach to study, writing, exercise, discipline, leadership etc. ‘All or nothing’ falls apart when nothing becomes the default.

 

 

So here I am.

 

Valuing the mindful consumption, intentionality, worthy goals and robust thinking that a love of excellence provides.

 

I am also learning to love my humanity. To surrender daily my strivings to the greatest Editor of all, knowing that His strength holds my weaknesses. And rejoicing in the grace of His sanctification, that He does not leave those weaknesses unchanged.

 

Here’s to the journey.