Topical Guide 226
Mark Dorset
Traits, of Character, of Personality: Perfectionism
Perhaps perfectionism is a real human trait, genetically transferred, not a habit, not something learned. Perhaps it’s a Leroy family trait, one of those that skips generations. Certainly there are similarities between perfectionism and the qualities I admired in my great-great-grandfather, Black Jacques Leroy—his dedication to his dreams, his persistence in making them come true, qualities he demonstrated in developing and producing what may have been the best beer ever brewed, …
It is still a strong attribute of my character, but I’m not now the perfectionist I was in my Tars days. As I’ve aged, my increasing awareness of the fact that the number of days left to me is decreasing has worked against my perfectionism. … However, at the time when I was Scribe of the Tars, I was so much a perfectionist that I began rewriting the log.Little Follies, “The Young Tars”
Julius drew himself up.
“I don’t write for the sake of amusement,” he answered nobly. “The joy that I feel in writing is superior to any that I might find in living. Moreover, the one is not incompatible with the other.”
“So they say,” replied Lafcadio. Then abruptly raising his voice, which he had dropped as though inadvertently: “Do you know what it is I dislike about writing?—All the scratchings out and touchings up that are necessary.”
“Do you think there are no corrections in life too?” asked Julius, beginning to prick up his ears.
“You misunderstand me. In life one corrects oneself—one improves oneself—so people say; but one can’t correct what one does. It’s the power of revising that makes writing such a colorless affair—such a . . .” (He left his sentence unfinished.) “Yes! That’s what seems to me so fine about life. It’s like frescoe-painting—erasures aren’t allowed.”
The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.Omar Khayyam, The Rubaiyat (translated by Edward Fitzgerald)
Allusions, Literary
. . . the legendary Leroy Lager, the beer that Emily Dickinson praised, in a generous gesture of self-parody, in a poem she sent to Black Jacques for publication on one of his labels:
I taste a Lager better brewed—
From Tankards scooped in Pearl—
Than all the Vats upon the Rhine
Might offer this New England Girl!
Inebriate of Lager, I—
And Debauchee of Pilsner, too—
Reel—from Inn to Tavern—aye—
In search of Black Jacques’s perfect Brew—Little Follies, “The Young Tars”
I taste a liquor never brewed —
From Tankards scooped in Pearl —
Not all the Frankfort Berries
Yield such an Alcohol!
Inebriate of air — am I —
And Debauchee of Dew —
Reeling — thro’ endless summer days —
From inns of molten Blue —
When “Landlords” turn the drunken Bee
Out of the Foxglove's door —
When Butterflies — renounce their “drams” —
I shall but drink the more!
Till Seraphs swing their snowy Hats —
And Saints — to windows run —
To see the little Tippler
Leaning against the — Sun!
See also: Traits, Generational Persistence of TG 37; Traits, of Character, of Personality TG 37
[more to come on Wednesday, March 30, 2022]
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