Perfect Moments

In the movie The Last Samu­rai the ulti­mate war­rior says, “I sup­pose if a man’s life was spent search­ing for the per­fect cherry blos­som it would not be wasted.” That seemed odd, com­ing from such a pow­er­ful fig­ure, but it is con­sis­tent with true great­ness. Power is bal­anced by the most vul­ner­a­ble forms of beauty. Life in the quest of the per­fect flower would seem like a total waste to most peo­ple. We are such prag­mat­ics. Too often teens are steered away from the arts to some­thing that makes more money — as if life was just a mat­ter of pay­ing the bills.

The human soul has the capac­ity to per­ceive immense beauty. It has the abil­ity to expe­ri­ence vic­ar­i­ous per­fec­tion. For “one brief shin­ing moment” it can be the amaz­ing hero, the beauty queen, or even a god. That one lit­tle inner abil­ity keeps some of us on an eter­nal quest.

I am not much of a dec­o­ra­tor, but I peruse pub­li­ca­tions on inte­rior design. No, I can­not afford a pri­vate jet, but I shop for one like I could write a check for it on the spot. Wealth is an inte­rior dimen­sion. It is a capac­ity of soul. Your wal­let may be empty, but your sense of liv­ing can be beyond the reach of a bil­lion­aire. Qual­ity is a state of mind. The Beat­i­tudes are but signs point­ing to this trait. The “pure in heart” see God — but not lit­er­ally. Such expres­sions are poetic — a ges­ture beyond the capac­ity of words. “See­ing God” is a way — a style of being.

Today a per­fect moment awaits you. Its real­iza­tion will be brief. It can­not be cap­tured or com­pletely described. For that instant, there is an aware­ness of some Great Artist syn­chro­niz­ing col­ors with events, sym­bols with sounds, and time with eter­nity. Spir­i­tual oppor­tunists antic­i­pate them. Five tran­scen­dent sec­onds can out weigh a day of mis­ery. Qual­ity is not mea­sured by mere dura­tion, though one day you may real­ize that your entire life is itself one qual­ity moment in the grand scheme of things.