take me out to that ball game

Anyone who knows me, knows I'm not a big sports fan-till the other day in Detroit when I happened to watch a perfectly imperfect game. The very gracious young pitcher was" robbed" of his perfect game by a mistaken call by the umpire. The human connection, empathy, and forgiveness, that transpired between these two players in this human drama once again showed me the beauty of imperfection -allowing the space for humanism to triumph over perfectionism.When we over protect ourselves, when we pretend or idealize perfection at any cost, we don't allow others to get close to us. If we have no spaces to fill, no humaness to connect us to others, we deprive ourselves of the very energy we need to move ahead  and to give  our gifts.

Sure, it would have been incredible to have this young man have his perfect game which he legitimately earned. It was very dissapointing to have to accept the fact that a mistake had been made and it was not going to happen.

But what happened next was even more satisfying. To watch all the players come to terms with what had happened and to find a way to turn what the umpire said was "my worst day" into my "greatest day" as anger turned to understanding.

So go ahead- its ok say your sorry, forgive someone, its only in our imperfection and in the sharing of that human experience that we truly find the only perfection there is-the moment where we recognize our own human imperfection in the eyes of a fellow player.
Now,you can take me out to that ball game any day of the week.