Jake read his response to the class, choked on the last words, and spent the next few minutes with his head on his desk. Writing about pain is therapy. Jake didn't know about therapy. I doubt he even knew he was in pain until he began writing. Last summer at the West Tennessee Writing Project intensive writing institute, I learned the difference between perfection and excellence.
Perfection requires judgment, an automatic right or wrong.
Excellence is simply being the best you can be and perhaps trying to improve yourself as you move through this mist called life. Perfection requires acceptance or rejection. Excellence involves only acceptance. Perfection means being the best. Excellence is being the best you can be.