And now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good

That's from John Steinbeck's East of Eden.  I lifted it from a Buzzfeed list.  I'm not particularly ashamed to admit that.


It's illustrative of how I'd like my year to be.  My 31st birthday was 3 weeks ago. 


I was in a relationship with a guy at one point in my life who said the first song he heard on the radio on his 21st birthday was symbolic of the year ahead.  On his 22nd, it was the second song.  It was the third song on his 23rd, and so on.


I'm not sure I want to leave my fate in the hands of the morning show DJ.  Steinbeck's probably got more to say to the masses.  But the truth is, I had decided on the philosophy of goodness rather than perfection before I read that buzzfeed list.  My 30th birthday kicked off the year in exactly the way I had imagined in all my greatest fantasies that it would.  As loyal readers will know, things hit the shitter shortly thereafter.  And as very loyal readers will know, I had been striving for perfection for some time before that.


My 31st birthday was pretty low key.  I went to work at two jobs that day and then went to rehearsal for a choir I accompany.  I had drinks with friends for an hour or so after that, and a Skype date with my long-distance love interest.  I relished the numerous Facebook birthday wishes that popped up on my feed throughout the day and beamed through the handful of in-person Happy Birthday songs I was sung. 


And when people tell me that's what happens after you turn 30, to console me because things were not that exciting, I tell them: I'm really trying to decrease the standard deviation of awesome in my life this year.  I didn't want it to be perfect.  The day was perfectly good anyway.


At this point in the blog post, I would normally write a longish list of resolutions or lessons.  This will only be slightly different from the norm.  I have two for the year.


1.  Be better at accepting less than perfection.  This is always a challenge in my life.  The other 3% is like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and it's hard to stop looking for that point where the rainbow hits the earth.


2.  When I'm in control of letting something or someone in or out of my life, do my best to consider the following question: "Does this make my life better?"  And if I AM in control, and the answer is No, do my best to unclutter my life of the things that don't need to be there (and of course, fight hard to keep the good things around).


So while I'd love to pledge to make my life perfect, I think those two challenges are enough.  And maybe, most of the time, my life will be good.