Patty Mayeux Blog

Perfection is a red juicy apple. Until you bite into it. One holiday season I packed away some wax fruit to make way for holiday decorations. I threw them all in a paper bag to store in the attic and forgot about it until I returned to the attic, months later. I was surprised to find a bronze figure of a monkey with a corroded leg. It was gooey and slimy black/green. What in the world? Next to the monkey was the paper bag of the wax fruit. Inside was a real apple. Oops. I had mistakenly stored it alongside the wax ones. It must have been near perfect for me to include it. No more. It was gross. It was funny. It was amazing how decaying organic matter can cut through metal. Perfection is not gross or funny or amazing. Imagine a life in which everyone and everything is perfect. We might as well be Barbies and Kens, plastic and cheap and unfeeling. Biting into an apple breaks its surface and mars its flesh but oh the joy of messy juice running down your chin. Enjoy life, every sticky and surprising bit of it. The imperfections make it beautiful.