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What is a perfect moment?

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Philos

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Folks,

A friend used to ask me, "What is a perfect moment?" For a long time I thought I had an answer, and then recently changed it.

What do you think is an answer, if any?

A.
 
Philos said:
Folks,

A friend used to ask me, "What is a perfect moment?" For a long time I thought I had an answer, and then recently changed it.

What do you think is an answer, if any?

A.
Click to expand...
That's easy -- it's a moment that has come and gone. The hard question is...



"What is a pluperfect moment?"

Sorry, couldn't resist. The setup was too perfect.[/grammar nerd]
:tomato:

 
seyorni said:
What's perfect for one might not be for another. It's a subjunctive question.
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seyorni,

Its philosophy, leading us into questions of subjective and objective perspectives.

My own answer, subjectively, was "When pain stops" and I'm fairly confident that such an answer could be generalised somewhat. However, I was answering for myself.

Has there been a perfect moment for you? What was it?

A.

PS - Of course what might be a perfect moment for one person might be different for the same person at another time. A problem for the phenomenologist or maybe not?
 
When all judgment "this is great" or "this sucks" has dropped aside and there's just the experience, whatever it is, and no part of the brain is analyzing it.

For an example, sometimes on a walk in the park something enters the foreground of attention, let's say "it" is a "flower". But, in "perfect moments", "I" am not "observing" a "flower". It's all a unitary experience without the illusions created by analyzing it (and by illusions I mean the divisions that get added after-the-fact, which are denoted here with quote marks).

Then I think (such a tragic thing sometimes, haha) "That's a lovely flower" and snap! in an instant "the perfect moment" is gone (or rather, it appears into conception, as a memory). "I" exists again. "Observing" is the insipid thing that's replaced the unity, and the "flower" is an "it" getting judged as "lovely". It's then "the perfect moment" may be opined about and described like a stuffed animal in a glass case as I'm doing now.
 
Oxford says that perfect is, "Having all the required or desirable elements, qualities, or characteristics; as good as it is possible to be".

Using this definition and putting it into a moment is universally the best moment possible.
 
abaddon said:
When all judgment "this is great" or "this sucks" has dropped aside and there's just the experience, whatever it is, and no part of the brain is analyzing it.

For an example, sometimes on a walk in the park something enters the foreground of attention, let's say "it" is a "flower". But, in "perfect moments", "I" am not "observing" a "flower". It's all a unitary experience without the illusions created by analyzing it (and by illusions I mean the divisions that get added after-the-fact, which are denoted here with quote marks).

Then I think (such a tragic thing sometimes, haha) "That's a lovely flower" and snap! in an instant "the perfect moment" is gone (or rather, it appears into conception, as a memory). "I" exists again. "Observing" is the insipid thing that's replaced the unity, and the "flower" is an "it" getting judged as "lovely". It's then "the perfect moment" may be opined about and described like a stuffed animal in a glass case as I'm doing now.
Click to expand...



ab,

Yes, 'In the moment' is something to do with it.

I was recently red lining my Yamaha R1 on a private road, which was not totally smooth. The front wheel went up and the back squirreled for grip as I hit the red in third and went for fourth. I got control again and gunned it and just then I let out an involuntary yell (pretty loud inside the helmet) as the front went up again.

I haven't tried to analyse this, but do have the memory of the exhilaration and danger. The memory isn't about the details of the moment, which are a bit blurry, but the feeling is as clear as a bell. Like the addict, I just know I want to do it again.:applause2:

A.
 
Philos said:
I haven't tried to analyse this, but do have the memory of the exhilaration and danger. The memory isn't about the details of the moment, which are a bit blurry, but the feeling is as clear as a bell. Like the addict, I just know I want to do it again.:applause2:

A.
Click to expand...

The problem with that moment is that if you have another then the first wasn't perfect by some measure. I also have great difficulty reconciling danger with the feeling 'perfect'. Don't you think that danger is a different signal than ideal. We are designed to tolerate danger, but, to seek it seems a vocation rather than a feeling.
 
ryan said:
Oxford says that perfect is, "Having all the required or desirable elements, qualities, or characteristics; as good as it is possible to be".

Using this definition and putting it into a moment is universally the best moment possible.
Click to expand...
Perfect moments are when I feel only happiness, as when I'm a little bit drunk, sitting in the side yard watching the flowers and all the living things, after having done some significant physical activity to earn my reward.

Yesterday while biking I came upon a snake crossing the trail, and it had stopped right in the middle of the path. I stopped because someone might wish to harm it. After much attention I managed to get it to slither to safety. Don't know how long it took but I enjoyed every moment, never getting in a hurry, never putting either of us in any danger.

If I were to win the powerball the moment I realized I had won would be a perfect moment.

I've been far into the back country, days from any of the creature comforts and safety we take for granted in our daily lives. The moments of perfection I have lived there are too numerous to mention.

Being there when my kids were born and holding them were perfect moments. Taking care of them when they were helpless and dependent were perfect moments, again too numerous to mention.

Sometimes I think of all of eternity as one eternal moment. It's not so difficult to think about it that way.
 
My perfect moment is a girl in a lake. The sun was going below the tree line, so the water no longer looked brown and disgusting. Breeze smelled like musty tackle boxes. She popped up in front of me like a dolphin and smiled. Her teeth were gapped like chainsaw links. Could have gnawed through any slimy stick floating by with ease. Hair was red. Freckles. Lots of freckles. Her imperfections made her so beautiful. I probably gave her a nice urinary tract infection.

Simple moment. Nothing spectacular. Just a lake with some trailer trash swimming around in it. I doubt the powerball would have phased me in that moment either. I think about it when I need to relax.
 
How long is a moment?

What is perfection?

The sadist's perfect moment is another's agony.
 
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