Perfection and Gwyneth Paltrow
This is the paradox of perfectionism. It doesn’t matter how hard we try, we will never get there. There is no point at which we can say we have reached perfection. There is only the exhaustive strain for a goal that will always be out of reach. – The Girl Unravelled.
I’m sitting at my computer.
I’ve opened my manuscript file and am preparing to continue with my editing of the Novel.
I can hear the laundry machine skip a cycle on its last legs of life.
My cat just threw up for the millionth time (old fella, isn’t doing too well).
My den is a mess and I’m trying to listen to some quieting music to set my mind at ease while I write.
I just got word a dear one is in hospital again and then…Gwyneth Paltrow goes and launches an organic skincare line.
This is my life.
I can’t keep up sometimes. I can’t breathe. I can’t trust myself, nor any “ability” I have. There is even less hope in keeping it all together, to be a professional and still be “Mom.”
I see the teachers at my kids’ school and am amazed they can juggle so much as a class of their own let alone their own lives that they return to at end of day.
And Ms Paltrow holds a book signing for her latest cookbook she wrote “all by herself.”
A wonderful first-time-author I met two years ago, who seemed to be just a few steps ahead of me in the almighty publishing-dream line, who was promoting her very first book then, is now doing the rounds to promote book #3 while writing book #4, travelling the country and raising a family.
And Gwyneth says that although her kids eat sugar, she’s always mindful of organic nutritional substitutes in her home.
My deadline is fast approaching for February and I am not so far ahead of where I was last month.
Perfection does not live here.
I need to believe that, from my insides out. Perfectionism is the gnawing scraping at the back of my brain. Not Gwyneth Paltrow.
I’m not cutting her any slack though.
I think she is making the world far more difficult to live in because of her spotless glowing façade. Yes she’s dealt with the loss of her father, therapy and the “uncoupling” of her marriage. And I get it, she’s a public persona. She has to do her thing and of course look good doing it.
But just once, I would love to see a crack in her demeanor, a hint of humanity that exists beyond the “GOOP Pop-up” store, the latest Tracey Anderson gym-opening and the sparkling red carpet arrivals.
Once I admired her.
Now I wish she would just STOP, put her feet up and rest for a while so the lot of us can carry on without the mind-numbing reminders of a world not within our reach.
And…I write.
Paula Antonello Moore, Writing & Thoughts. Copyright: Thursday, January 21, 2016
Image: Gwyneth Paltrow from Booms Beat.
This made me laugh so much- possibly not your intention so I’m sorry but I imagine you don’t have crack team of professional fluffers, make up artists, baby minders, cleaners, cooks, cleaners… and still you managed to bring a smile to my face!! Keep going, skin care cream or just a face pack of mayo to go!!
Ha. Glad you smiled. Nope, no team here (though I could use a couple of professional fluffers 😉). Yet I still managed to entertain? I must be doing something right. Thanks.
Ahh ’tis a slippery slope when we attempt to compare our insides with someone else’s outsides. However it is an easy trap and your writing captures it beautifully……made me smile as well as yes, Gwenyth should join us for tea someday so we can show her what real life is all about. As Dory so wisely said…..”just keep swimming/writing”.
Nicely put. It’s not that I’m jealous of how flawless she appears. I actually like my own face 😎 I just want to see more hairs out of place, and a wrinkle or two. Or, God forbid, a loose strand sitting on her shoulder on the red carpet.
Hey Paula – I say kudos to you on this way of thinking! The world of controled phoney just isn’t worth it.