good enough

 
Recently my daughter had a school project that she’d meticulously worked on for weeks. The day before it was due, something came up expectedly and she was unable to complete the last piece of artwork that was to be included in the project until the morning just prior to leaving for school. She was rushed, and when it was finished she announced that not only was her final artwork terrible, but the entire project now ruined. I looked at the drawing she’d created, which was clearly not her best work although not nearly as awful as she described, and told her the strength of her entire project would assure her a good grade. She continued to argue that her final drawing was unacceptable. We went back and forth as the clock was ticking and she needed to be on her way to school, when finally, exasperated, I firmly told her, “Claire, it is good enough, let it go.” My daughter looked at me as if I’d just spewed blasphemy. She was furious when she responded, “Good enough? Mom, haven’t you told me to always give my best effort to something I care about?”

Ironically, a few days after this confrontation I had a very challenging shoot. I’d battled harsh lighting and overly tired children for a good while and seriously worried the results of my efforts would not be worthy. Finally the sun dropped low enough in the sky to be more workable, the mom propped the baby in the sand in the most advantageous spot lighting-wise, and we were almost ready for what we’d hoped would be the best segment of the shoot. The plan was to very quickly remove the diaper from the baby, smooth out the sand a bit, eliminate the toy boat, and entice big brother to join the scene.

I got in position, took a few shoots just prior to the mom moving in to do her part, when the baby shoved the entire fistful of sand he’d been clutching into his mouth, swallowing a fair amount of it. As so often happens in children’s portraiture, the scene abruptly disintegrated into a heap of tears. The baby never did bounce back enough from his sand meal and lack of afternoon nap to be included in any more photos. This image, with unattractive diaper included, distracting toy in forefront, and lumpy sand all about, would have to be “good enough”.

I drove home remembering the battle with my daughter, and how sometimes, “good enough” is all we can do. It feels as if we’re living in a world where the pursuit of perfection is dangerously running rampant. Yes, Claire, one should always give their best effort to those things cared about. But we are human beings, not machines, and there are moments, when for a million different reasons, doing “our best” simply alludes us. So we work with what we have available, forgive ourselves our shortcomings, and concede that for today, this will have to be “good enough”.

 
~Cynthia