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{"id":297,"date":"2011-02-23T13:38:00","date_gmt":"2011-02-23T13:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/02\/the-perfect-is-the-enemy-of-the-good\/"},"modified":"2011-02-23T13:38:00","modified_gmt":"2011-02-23T13:38:00","slug":"the-perfect-is-the-enemy-of-the-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/02\/the-perfect-is-the-enemy-of-the-good.html","title":{"rendered":"The Perfect is the Enemy of the Good"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Cat Chapin-Bishop, best known (to me, anyway) for her Quaker Pagan blog<\/a>, also keeps an environmental blog. Her most recent post concerns her efforts to stop generating plastic waste<\/a>\u2026 efforts that have been less than perfect. <\/p>\n

I feel the same way at times. I do some very good, very responsible things. I also do some things that aren\u2019t particularly helpful. Does that make me a hypocrite? <\/p>\n

Cat says \u201cPurity is a pretty trivial obsession, in the context of all the competing demands to do good in the world. That\u2019s not a rationalization: it\u2019s a reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the commenters has an excellent addition. \u201cWhy bother? Because that process of decisions and discernment has changed YOU.\u201d She goes on to quote Catholic social activist Dorothy Day<\/a>, who said that that her work was not about being effective, it was about being faithful.<\/p>\n

Go read Cat\u2019s post, and the comments \u2013 it\u2019s well worth your time.<\/p>\n

We can\u2019t fix all the world\u2019s problems. We can\u2019t even fix all our own problems. Don\u2019t let the desire to be perfect keep you from doing the good you can do.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"