“Best is the enemy of good.”
Have you ever thought of Best as perfection and Good as practicality?
Well.. this quote is all about this issue, and of course in this context, animosity is expected.
Good is the one climbing the stairs step by step.
Best is the one taking them all in a few leaps, reaching the top before anyone else.
Good is laughed at as slow and a loser.
Best is championed as fast and a winner.
But doesn’t the steady turtle win the race against the pompous rabbit?
She listens to practicality.
He listens to perfection.
She wins.
He loses.
Simple. Right?
Now, try and read the sentence from right to left:
The good is the enemy of the best.
This is another saying.
According to this one, the good is the average, the easy way—the path that stops and hinders the achievement of the ideal, the perfect.
Neither the turtle nor the rabbit really fits this context.
Because the turtle doesn’t stop the rabbit, and the rabbit is too arrogant to be an ideal.
But… actually they can fit, just in a different way.
The rabbit is doing what is good.
But why try to do better?
He thinks he’s perfect—the winner.
Surprisingly, the turtle is doing not only good, but better,
even the best of her abilities to keep going and finish the race.
She wins.
He loses.
Got anywhere now?
Hopefully, you’re not lost.
In both cases, the turtle is the winner and the rabbit is the loser.
In both the quote and the saying, the winner is the practical one whether they are doing good or doing their best.
Perfection is out of the race because it is impossible.
We are not created to be perfect.
But we’re meant to do our best.
Good can be enough,
but what about other possibilities? Other dreams? Other questions?
Why get five if you can get ten?
Why give up instead of keeping on?
It was a perfect day, we say use “perfect” as a figure of speech,
because we decided to enjoy it with its good and bad details.
Now… do you think the quote and the saying can be two faces of the same coin?
With best-and-good thoughts,
Nahla
Pure and Simple 