June 2009

Perfection in Motion

How do we walk?

Our lead leg leaves the ground first, swinging from the hip, our balance shifts and we fall forward. We catch ourselves when our heel hits the ground, then our foot rolls onto its toes. The trailing leg leaves the ground, and we fall forward again.

We do it so casually day in and day out, we never notice ourselves falling.

And yet, that’s what we do – lose and regain our balance thousands of times a day.

The Perfect Relationship

A friend told me about an online discussion she read on ‘the perfect relationship’. It sounded like most people define perfection as a place where they can stop struggling – where everything stays pristine for now and ever.

It also sounded like a fantasy.

She asked me what I thought a perfect relationship was, if there ever could be such a creature.

Honestly?

I think it’s a lot like walking. You fall, but you regain your balance again. And when you can find balance in imperfection together, walking until the end of your journeys, that sounds just about perfect to me.

When I was a design student, there was a particular sketchbook I loved to use. You could only buy it at two places in the entire country, and sometimes they would sell out. It was meant for children, and the cover had a cute, colorful drawing of happy zoo animals, so it was more suitable for a kid to carry to kindergarten than for a teenager to be seen drawing it out of his bag in public.

But I absolutely loved it.

It was the texture of the paper, which was recycled. It had a rough, unfinished quality, and I loved the way it felt on my pencil. Every other type of drawing paper felt too smooth to draw on, but this paper was entirely inviting. I remember spending the entire month of one of my school holidays at the library, just sketching my way through a book.

That sketchbook with the colorful cover taught me one thing: when you use tools you love, you’re inspired to do more.

MUJI 0.38mm gel ink pens, another tool I love that inspires me.

MUJI 0.38mm gel ink pens, another tool I love that inspires me.