THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING IMPERFECT

Clarke (a women's club circuit lecturer?) is very earnest about the importance of being imperfect- and his self-help-ing hand is extended to the ""picture straighteners on the walls of life"". The perfectionist is dissatisfied with himself and with living; he has fears of being inadequate- or ignorant; there are other flaws, conformity, jealousy, withdrawal, apartness rather than togetherness, and he must learn to downgrade his estimates of himself and what he should be and cultivate the ""positive power of negative thinking"". As you can see, he is quite a phrase-maker (""exchanging ideas as accomplices in the venture of life""- ""psychic freeway"") and his mental and emotional push-ups are toned by philosophical, psychological, and literary references of all sorts- giving them a sort of glossy intellectual sheen, slightly above the intimate caress of say Gayelord Hauser.