Article February 12, 1977 Issue

So You're a Perfectionist

JAMES NORMAN WOMACK

Those individuals commonly described as "perfectionists" are often the movers and shakers of society; the people who get things done—the creators, the managers, the organizers, the responsible people. They pay careful attention to detail and are not satisfied with substandard or even standard performance.

Alas, however, the life of a perfectionist is not always a happy one. He may concentrate his attention too much on things that need correcting, sometimes with no human means of correction at his disposal. This leads to frustration. His high standards often make him quick to condemn others for their shortcomings.

But Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes, "You may condemn evil in the abstract without harming any one or your own moral sense, but condemn persons seldom, if ever."^{The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 249;} This succinct statement, made to the members of The Christian Science Board of Lectureship, provides the perfectionist with a rule that can, if followed, replace his weary view of stumbling humanity with that spiritual insight which perceives the realities of existence—God's allness and goodness, man's perfection as His expression, and the utterly false, impersonal nature of all evil.