4 Things About Perfection That I Learned From Adrian Monk

I have just finished watching Season One of  Monk, a TV show produced by NBC Universal. Despite the “defective detective” label, I totally identified with Monk—his uniqueness, his imperfections, and his humanity.

I learned four valuable lessons from Adrian Monk, obsessive compulsive, that helped me accept myself despite of and in spite of:

1. We all want to be perfect…

Accept it: there really is a reason why Monk and the rest of us sweat the small stuff.  We have been hot-wired since birth to want perfection because we were made for perfection!

Man is both body and soul, and our souls have the imprint of our Creator’s perfection.  It’s perfectly natural for us to crave perfection.

Adrian Monk just has a more heightened sensitivity to the perfection that God has stamped within each human soul.  You and I have also that same tendency.  We just don’t have the necessary tenacity and stubbornness that Monk has, to insist on them.

2. But we all have our little insanities…

Our natural self, our humanity, demands that we also have to deal with the other half of reality: our flesh.

The flesh is not just the physical body.  It’s the sum total of the habits, tendencies, and choices that we have accumulated since birth.  Some are influenced by the people around us, some by the world we move in, and still some more by our own preferences.

Monk could’ve been perfect had it not been the trauma brought about by his wife’s death. Losing Trudy in a violent attack has so “rewired” his system that he now has a morbid fear of germs, heights and milk.  But these do not detract much from his genius, although they make situations awkward.

3. So we can never be perfect...

Monk saw the little details at the scene of the crime that the other detectives missed: an assassin smoked Salem menthols (Newports), he was taller than average, and that he had Special Forces trainings…

But Monk’s spectacular genius is tempered by his quirks.  His is a lonely life because his germaphobia prevents him from enjoying the simple handshake or the hug of a friend.

You and I, we also have our own preferences and tendencies. We button shirts from the neck down, we don’t step on lines, we count bricks…ad nauseaum.

4. But it’s okay because it’s our imperfections that make us brilliant and one of a kind.

So seeing Monk excelling despite his imperfections, I am encouraged.  Nobody questions Monk’s analytical genius; he continues to stun his peers at every turn with his unique, crime-solving talent.

You and I, we can still live a wonderful life even with our imperfections.  We can still be exceptional.  What is important is that we give our best; trite, but it is the only path to excellence.  Our “uniqueness” may trip us up once in a while, but if we stand up, dust ourselves, and learn that there’s one other way not to do something, then we can begin to really excel and overcome life’s challenges.

And we don’t have to be an obsessive compulsive like Monk to excel.